The General Social Surveys (GSS) were designed as part of a data diffusion project in 1972. The GSS replicated questionnaire items and wording in order to facilitate time-trend studies. This data collection includes a cumulative file that merges all 26 General Social Surveys into a single file.
National Opinion Research Center (NORC)
Rev. by Roper Center for Public Opinion Research
United States, census region
Davis, James A., Tom W. Smith and Peter V. Marsden
This is a collection of CD-ROMs containing different editions of the cumulative data files. They can be consulted in person in the Map & Data Library.
The Roper Center versions differ in several ways from the original version supplied by NORC. During the archival process, systematic changes have been made to the data files for completeness. These changes include additions and corrections to response labeling, and inclusion of "don't know" responses as valid. Additionally, since a number of variables differ and new variables have been added to the cumulative data file, the codebook frequencies should not be trusted as difinitive response distributions.
University of Toronto students, staff and faculty