Award Abstract #0452279
A Proposal to Continue "A National Data Program for the Social Sciences"

NSF Org:	SES Division of Social and Economic Sciences
Initial Amendment Date:	August 31, 2005
Latest Amendment Date:	September 16, 2008
Award Number:	0452279
Award Instrument:	Continuing grant
Program Manager:	Patricia White SES Division of Social and Economic Sciences SBE Directorate for Social, Behavioral & Economic Sciences
Start Date:	October 1, 2005
Expires:	September 30, 2010 (Estimated)
Awarded Amount to Date:	$10012793
Investigator(s):	James Davis davis-james@norc.org (Principal Investigator) Tom Smith (Co-Principal Investigator) Peter Marsden (Co-Principal Investigator)
Sponsor:	National Opinion Research Center 1155 E. 60th Street Chicago, IL 60637 773/256-6000
NSF Program(s):	, SCIENCE & ENGINEERNG INDICATRS, RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT STATIST, ENG NNI SPECIAL STUDIES, ARCTIC SOCIAL SCIENCES, ANTARCTIC COORDINATION & INFOR, SPECIAL STUDIES AND ANALYSES, SOCIOLOGY
Field Application(s):	0116000 Human Subjects
Program Reference Code(s):	SMET,OTHR,9251,9178,0000
Program Element Code(s):	T831,T374,T183,H286,8804,8802,7773,7681,5221,5130,1385,1331

ABSTRACT

SES-0452279

James Davis

Peter Marsden

Tom Smith

National Opinion Research Center

This project continues the National Data Program for the Social Sciences (NDPSS), more specifically the General Social Survey. The NDPSS is a social indicators, infrastructure, and data dissemination program. Its gather data that allows us to (1) monitor and explain trends, changes and constants in attitudes, behaviors, and attributes and examine the structure and functioning of society in general as well as the role of various sub-groups; (2) compare the United States to other societies, by developing cross-national models of human society; and (3) make high quality data easily accessible to scholars, students, and others with minimal cost and waiting. NDPSS data are collected through the General Social Survey (GSS) and its allied surveys in the International Social Survey Program (ISSP). The GSS is a regular, ongoing interview survey of U.S households conducted by the National Opinion Research Center. The mission of the GSS is to make timely high-quality scientifically relevant data available to social science researchers. Since 1972 the GSS (with NSF support) has conducted 25 in-person, cross-sectional surveys of the adult household population of the U S with approximately 44,000 respondents. GSS content is wide ranging with approximately 4,500 variables overall. There is broad base participation in the development of the GSS. Many prominent scholars help develop topical modules. For example, 74 researchers from 48 universities and research institutes have served on the GSS Board and 253 social scientists in a dozen disciplines from 147 institutions have participated in the design of the last 28 topical modules in the GSS.

The GSS has spurred cross-national research by inspiring other nations to develop data collection programs modeled on the GSS and by joining with the International Social Science Program (ISS). Since 1984 ISSP has grown to 39 nations. The GSSDIRS website is extremely popular with users, having over 4,000,000 visits in 2003. The ISSP website was visited over 203,000 times during the last 12 months. The user community includes researchers, college teachers, university students, business planners, media and public officials. Sociologists, political scientists, economists, statisticians, survey methodologists, anthropologists, geographers, biologists, engineers, psychologists, criminologist, legal scholars, medical/health researchers and business administration and management scholars use GSS data. This use of the GSS is widely documented in publications. The PIs have able to document over 8,500 uses of the GSS: approximately 4,862 journal articles, 1,664 books, 1,364 scholarly papers, 568 reports, and 188 dissertations and theses. Most users (82%) have been academics with college affiliations. Research usages reached 200 per annum in the late 1980s and 300 per annum in the early 1990s. Current use is now at over 600 per annum.

This renewal includes several enhancements, upgrades and innovations to the GSS. Specifically, it will 1) add contextual data to supplement individual-level information to place the individual in a social context; (2) expand our coverage of America's ethnic and cultural diversity by the development of Spanish versions of GSS instruments and conducting interviews in Spanish: (3) introduce a panel component to study change among individuals with a prospective panel; and (4) facilitate the collection of auxiliary data on other social units besides individuals and households.

Broader Impacts

The NDPSS has already had enormous impact beyond the boundaries of the survey itself. The GSS is held as the gold standard by which many other survey data collection activities are measured, and the ISSP program has led to innovations and developments in cross-cultural and cross-national research. The GSS thus serves as a model that is being emulated elsewhere, such as in the newly created European Social Survey program. The contributions of the GSS to the teaching of quantitative social science analysis are unprecedented. Its accessibility and ease of use has added value far beyond the original data collection efforts, and researchers in the social sciences continue to mine the data both old and new to advance knowledge and test theories. The GSS and ISSP program is part of the core infrastructure of social science research in the U.S.

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