Overview

Get to Know the Institute for Social Research

The Institute for Social Research (ISR) at the University of Michigan is the world’s largest academic social science survey and research organization. Housed within five research centers, ISR’s interdisciplinary community of over 1,700 social science faculty, students, technical, professional, and administrative staff pursues rigorous research studies, including large-scale surveys and data collections, across all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and in various international locations.

• The Center for Political Studies (CPS) is recognized around the world as a leader in the quantitative study of politics and an innovator in research methods and training.
• The Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) is an international consortium of more than 810 academic institutions and research organizations and maintains the world’s largest archive of digital social science data.
• The Population Studies Center (PSC) is one of the oldest population studies centers in the United States, with a distinguished record in domestic and international population research and training.
• The Research Center for Group Dynamics (RCGD) conducts experimental studies in both laboratory settings and natural environments, including schools, businesses, and community groups, to advance our understanding of human behavior in social contexts.
• The Survey Research Center (SRC) is an international leader in interdisciplinary social science research involving the collection and analysis of data, especially data from scientific sample surveys.

ISR Highlights

• ISR’s research is cited more than 2,000 times annually by major outlets like BBC, Forbes, and The New York Times.
• ISR founding director Rensis Likert developed the elegant “Likert Scale,” the most widely used measure of attitudes and opinions in academic, government, and private sector research today.
• ISR pioneered survey sampling theories and methods that resulted in the only correct prediction of the 1948 U.S. presidential election and that still form the basis of scientifically valid surveys, market research, and public opinion polling.
• ISR fielded the 1954 double-blind experimental trials for the Salk polio vaccine on a national sample of U.S. schoolchildren, revealing that the vaccine was both safe and effective, and ending the polio epidemic that terrorized a generation.
• ISR started the field of organizational behavior, developing T-groups and sensitivity training.
• ISR data are used and cited by researchers across the globe as well as Federal, state, and local governmental officials.
• ISR is at the forefront of AI integration in research on dementia and aging.

ISR Research Projects and Datasets

• Surveys of Consumers produces the monthly Index of Consumer Expectations, which is included in the Leading Indicator Composite Index published by the U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis.
• Institute for Research on Innovation & Science (IRIS) is a consortium of research universities using big administrative data to understand, explain, and improve higher education and research.
• American National Election Studies (ANES) produces high-quality data from its surveys on voting, public opinion, and political participation.
• Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) is the world’s longest-running household panel survey, running since 1968.
• Health and Retirement Study (HRS) is a longitudinal panel study that has surveyed a representative sample of approximately 20,000 people over age 50 in America every two years since 1992.
• Monitoring the Future (MTF) is an ongoing study of the behaviors, attitudes, and values of Americans from adolescence through adulthood.
• Data Collections at ICPSR include partnerships with several federal statistical agencies and foundations to create specialized collections of data in health, population health, education, aging, criminal justice, substance abuse, and other fields.
• Michigan Research Data Center (MRDC) is a joint venture between the Census Bureau and the University of Michigan and is supported by funding from the University of Michigan and Michigan State University.