With National Science Foundation support, the Political Science and Sociology Departments at Ohio State University will create a linked Data Archive Unit and a Statistical and Data Manipulation Unit as the first phase of a longer term plan designed to enhance the research productivity of a large number of senior researchers and graduate students in both departments. The system will be built around a Gateway G6-200 Windows NT and a HP Netserver LH2 Pro 6/200 for statistical and data manipulation, and a PC w/CD-Writer, second CD-Writer and 600 recordable CD as well as HP Netserver LH5/166 for data storage. Both the Political Science and Sociology Departments at Ohio State University are well-ranked nationally with respect to their research and graduate training. The research conducted in these departments encompasses a wide array of substantive topics as well as research methodologies. Yet a large core of researchers in both disciplines employ a common quantitative methodology centered on the collection and analysis of large scale social surveys and other large data bases which will clearly benefit from the instrumentation. A sampling of topics to be examined include: structural determinants of race-sex labor market segregation and earnings; racial residential segregation, social isolation and homicide; aging, status and sense of control; strategic position taking and the timing of voting decisions in Congress; democratization and war; a study of Black voting in the 1996 election; and general voting patterns in the same year. The instrumentation will be used extensively by students and thus serve a major training function.
