THE SOCIAL SCIENTIFIC DATA ARCHIVES: THE PROBLEM OF UNDERUTILIZATION.

This article investigates the reasons for underutilization of archival data. In his comprehensive book on secondary analysis, Herbert Hyman points out that the vast amount of survey data that has accumulated in the various data archives in the 1950s and 1960s has not been widely used by social scientists to make important contributions to the literature. One can hardly agree with the judgment that the data archives have been underutilized. Consider for instance, the amount of data in the Roper Public Opinion Research Center and the dearth of contributions to social scientific literature based on data from the Roper Center. The center has data from almost 10,000 surveys, gathered by 117 survey organizations in 68 countries and its collection is growing by 400 to 500 data sets per year. In view of the huge amount of data at the center, the contributions to the social scientific literature based on those data seem quite meager. A major reason for underutilization of archival data is ignorance and this ignorance must be primarily the result of inadequate graduate training. Graduate course work should explicitly deal with the use of archival data. If specialized courses in secondary analysis are not instituted, sections on archival data and secondary analysis should be included in graduate method courses in every department.