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notice Some items are only available on campus or will require authentication via EUID and Password at the point of use.

PSCI 3160 Mass Media in American Politics

Library research guide for PSCI 3160

Roper iPoll Databank

The Roper iPoll Databank is a comprehensive, up-to-date source for US nationwide public opinion. A full-text retrieval system, the iPoll online database is organized at the question level, providing the tools to sift through nearly a half million questions asked on national public opinion surveys, 1935 to present. Surveys archived in the Roper Catalog were originally gathered by academic, commercial and media survey organizations such as Gallup Organization, Harris Interactive, Pew Research Associates, and many more.

To access Roper iPoll Databank, go to the Databases & E-Resources tab from the search box on the library homepage. Begin entering iPoll Databank and select the result from the drop down menu.  If you are off campus, you will be prompted to enter your EUID and Password to access the database.

Databases & E-Resources tab, "ipoll" in search bar

Enter your search term(s) in the text box below (highlighted in yellow) and click the blue Search iPoll button at the bottom (circled in red.) iPoll suggests that if you have a phrase you want to search, such as "Republican National Convention," that you put your search terms in quotes so that it will search for the phrase instead of all the words separately.

Depending on your topic, you may need to use the Narrow Results box on the left side of the results page to Search Within the results by keyword or to narrow by decade (circled in red below).

iPoll does have some suggestions for help with searching the database along with citation information within search results but please ask your professor or your Political Science Librarian if you need suggestions or guidance with this resource!

Additional Public Opinion Polling Resources

  •  Pew Research Center for the People and the Press conducts surveys about media use and public opinion. Web page includes reports.
  • Center for Media and Public Affairs conducts studies of the news and entertainment media. Web page includes press releases and research reports. 
  • Cornell Institute for Social and Economic Research (CISER Data Archive). Some of these sites contain questions on a specific topic or an entire survey or questionnaire. Others include response cross tabulations and information on a survey's methodology. Those containing only brief summaries of survey results are not included, nor are sites that concentrate on survey methodology.