Finding Research Data

UoB only
The UK’s largest collection of social, economic and population data sources. Contains qualitative data including interview transcripts and questionnaires, as well as major UK government-sponsored surveys, cross-national surveys, longitudinal studies, UK census data, international aggregate and business data. Research institutes include NatCen, Institute for Social and Economics Research (ISER) and the Centre for Longitudinal Studies (CLS) among many others.
You can filter search results by data type or search QualiBank for qualitative surveys, interview and open-ended questions: https://discover.ukdataservice.ac.uk/qualibank

USE ELSST (EUROPEAN LANGUAGE SOCIAL SCIENCES THESAURUS) TO FIND DATA BY SUBJECT: https://thesauri.cessda.eu/elsst-5/en/

UoB only
Mass Observation Project consists of all the directives (questionnaires) sent out by Mass Observation and the responses to them from the hundreds of Mass Observers. It includes topics such as the Falklands War, clothing, attitudes to the USA, reading and television habits, morality and religion, and Britain's relations with Europe.

Directive topics, questions and responses up to 2009 are available on the Mass Observation Project (1981-2009) above.
For 2010 onwards, all list of all project directive topics can be viewed here: https://massobs.org.uk/pastdirectives/
Responses can be obtained by emailing moa@sussex.ac.uk. Please note the archive has a small team of staff, so do allow between 3-5 working days for a response.

Material collected by Mass Observation during the COVID-19 pandemic, including diaries and writing created during the pandemic by people living in the UK

UoB only
Mass Observation Online makes available personal diaries, surveys, and other materials to provide records of public opinion from 1937 to 1967.

UoB only
Primary source material. Search across all content or select specific collections such as 1980s Culture & Society, Amnesty International Archives, Gender: Identity & Social Change and Sex & Sexuality

Primarily for quantitative data but has 28 qualitative datasets

Archive of UK TV & Radio broadcasts with programme transcripts. For more BBC content see also Connected Histories of the BBC and Voices of the BBC (below)

Interview transcripts of the key players in the Brexit process: the campaigners, politicians, civil servants and officials who were involved speak in detail on the record about their experience

Archive of primary research material covering all aspects of the debate around Britain and the European Union. Includes campaigning literature, interview transcripts and MP personal papers.

Mainly quantitative data from elections surveys, but includes internet panels with open text questions. Requires SPSS, Stata, or R which can be downloaded from IT Services: https://uob.sharepoint.com/sites/itservices/SitePages/free-and-discounted-software.aspx

Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network archive of televised proceedings of the United States House of Representatives and Senate and other public affairs programming. Also includes an archive of UK Prime Minister's Questions

Consortium of European Social Science Data Archives with over 40,000 datasets. Mainly quantitative but has some qualitative studies. Search for "qualitative" plus your topic.

The thesaurus provides suggestions for keyword topics: https://thesauri.cessda.eu/elsst-5/en/. A user guide is available: https://datacatalogue.cessda.eu/documentation/.

A separate list of European qualitative data archives, many of which are part of CESSDA, is available: https://ukdataservice.ac.uk/help/other-data-providers/other-data-providers-qualitative-data/european-archives/.

Oral history of the BBC containing hundreds of recorded interviews of audio, video and transcripts of BBC staff invited to speak frankly at the end of their career. Interviewees are drawn from all corners of the Corporation and from all levels – Directors-General, producers, presenters, journalists, engineers, secretaries, writers. They cover topics such as political upheavals, social change, war, international diplomacy, classical music and pop culture, mass entertainment, religion and morality, technology, language, education.

See also Voices of the BBC (below)

University of Bristol research data repository

Aggregates dataset records from multiple sources and allows searching of general repositories via a single interface.
Filter search results by 'Work Type' to 'dataset' in the left-hand menu

Thematic collections of primary sources for the study of southern history, literature, and culture including texts, images, and audio file within some interview transcripts. Recommended collections are "Oral Histories of the American South" and "Driving through Time: The Digital Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina"

Business database with UK and global newspaper content. Click on 'All Sources' (below the search box) to search for individual newspaper titles. Please note the default date range is the last three months but you can change this (below the search box). Coverage varies depending on the newspaper but some go back as far as 1980. To find coverage for a specific newspaper, search for the title and click the i icon

An online open access repository of research outputs, including figures, datasets, images, and videos.
Filter search results by item type to 'dataset' in the left-hand menu

Primary source database provided by Gale, covering newspapers, historic journals and other material

Discover data sets hosted in thousands of repositories across the web. Filter results based on type of dataset (e.g., tables, images, text), or whether the dataset is available for free from the provider

Research data from across research fields, from Harvard University, USA and beyond

Repository for quantitative and qualitative research data at the Institute for Quantitative Social Science in the USA, comprising over 100 terabytes of data, audio, and video

Online resources including primary source material. Collections that might be useful for research data include:
Asociación de Bibliotecas Nacionales de Iberoamérica
Digital Archive of Latin American and Caribbean Ephemera
Digital Library of the Caribbean
Hemeroteca Digital
LACLI
Latin American and Caribbean Digital Primary Resources

Library newspaper page of historical archives for 20th century and earlier

The Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) research data in support of evidence based human and social development in South Africa and the broader region

International consortium of more than 810 academic institutions and research organisations including mixed methods and qualitative research studies available for download in the social and behavioural sciences: education, aging, criminal justice, substance abuse, terrorism, and other fields.

Database of UK newspapers articles. Search for individual newspaper titles or search across all UK newspapers

Includes correspondence and newspapers. Please note video and sound files can only be accessed onsite at the New York Public Library. Search for "correspondence" or "newspapers" to browse available documents

Canadian Opinion Research Archive data holdings. Predominately quantitative, but has over 600 qualitative datasets, curated by academic libraries in Canada

Over 2600 open data portals around the world

Browse over 7000 global newspapers & magazines.

Includes verbatim transcripts of parliamentary debates (Hansard) and select committees, as well as providing access more broadly to UK parliamentary papers from the Westminster Parliament, Scottish Parliament, Northern Ireland Assembly, National Assembly for Wales and Scottish Government. A verbatim record of the Welsh Senedd debates (Record of Proceedings) is available separately on the Welsh Parliament website: https://senedd.wales/senedd-business/about-the-record-of-proceedings/

US universities repository for storing and sharing digital data (and accompanying documentation) generated or collected through qualitative and multi-method research in the social sciences and related disciplines

A resource for scholars, researchers and students interested in qualitative electoral research

A registry of research data repositories. Browse by country or subject

Downloadable datasets sourced from government and academic sources with step-by-step guides that walk you through quantitative and qualitative data analysis

BBC oral history transcripts focused on themes such as elections, the Cold War, pioneering women, and the role of broadcasting in reflecting an increasingly multicultural Britain. They’re written by academic experts and include several hundred programme clips, images, and written documents.

See also Connected Histories of the BBC (above)

A verbatim transcript of the proceedings of the Senedd's Plenary meetings. Welsh Parliament Acts, bills, committee reports, and statutory instruments are available on Public Information Online (see above): https://www-publicinformationonline-com.bris.idm.oclc.org/home

Backfiles of leading women's interest consumer magazines, from the late-19th century to 2005. These key primary sources permit the examination of the events, trends, and attitudes of this period.