Using proxy servers with the ICPSR website

Key Points

1. ICPSR would prefer you link directly to our site rather than through a proxy server, but we understand that some institutions have policies in place that require proxy servers.
2. Access to ICPSR does not require proxy servers. We use your campus IP range to control access; when a user successfully logs in from on campus, his/her account is flagged to allow the user to download from off campus for the next six months. Furthermore, we provide institution-specific reporting tools, so that you don’t need a proxy server to track usage.During the pandemic, we will also automatically verify data users who are logged in using an institutional email address. Please contact icpsr-help@umich.edu  for more information.
3. ICPSR is a consortium of dues-paying institutions, of which your institution is a member. This consortium of 700+ other institutions determines our priorities through a representative council elected by the member institutions. Supporting technical issues related to the wide variety of proxy servers can be resource-intensive because it is costly to manage the different applications and network configurations for so many institutions; thus Council has directed ICPSR to be selective in supporting proxy servers.
4. When a proxy server is not set up correctly, it can result in the user being denied access to data. Furthermore, the user is often completely ignorant of the fact that s/he is accessing the site via a proxy server, which makes it very difficult for ICPSR to assist them.
5. Even when configured correctly, proxy servers block third-party authentication like Google or Facebook. It is difficult to determine if this is the case for each variety of proxy server software or if there is a configuration that will work, so be prepared for pass through authentication to fail.
6. Some browser extensions may also cause the user to be blocked from data access. For example, your library may suggest an extension to better assist the user in accessing articles from news sites. If this is the case, please ask the user to open a “private” or “incognito” browser window.