SPSS

Learn about using SPSS at UC San Diego.

The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) offers four programs to assist researchers with their complex data analysis needs.

Of the four, we currently only support SPSS Statistics and SPSS Modeler.

SPSS Statistics

Offers advanced statistical analysis such as descriptive statistics, bivariate statistics, numeral outcome prediction and basic methodologic prediction.

UC San Diego has an enterprise license for SPSS Statistics that allows anyone to install and use it without additional cost.

You can request a license key for SPSS Statistics and download the tool from UC San Diego Software Distribution.

SPSS Modeler

Offers advanced predictive analytics though an extensive library of Machine Learning Algorithms.

Licenses for SPSS Modeler must be purchased by departments, but we have negotiated a UC San Diego discount. Pricing varies, depending, in part, on how much time remains in the current maintenance cycle. Contact busintel@ucsd.edu to request a quote. 

Which Application is Right For you?

This is a great guide to selecting SPSS Statistics or SPSS Modeler.

Data Sources

Currently, SPSS clients can only connect to data sources that are either:

1. Provisioned in Cognos Server in a Production environment and allow access to your AD account, or
2. Local data sources you import.

Quick Start Guide

How to Set Up a Cognos Connection for SPSS

Create a List Report in Cognos

• To access data sources through Cognos, create a simple list report in Cognos Dev Environment
• Be sure to filter the data to a manageable size
• This report should contain no prompts
• Save this report, preferably to the folder holding the source reports that will be imported to SPSS
• Submit a request to migrate your report to Cognos Production
• Migration only happens at the folder level

Training

IBM Official SPSS Statistics Training

PDFs

• SPSS Statistics Training - Data Visualization - Part 1 (PDF)
• SPSS Statistics Training - Data Visualization - Part 2 (PDF)
• SPSS Statistics Training - Data Transformation (PDF)
• SPSS Statistics Training - Frequencies  (PDF)
• SPSS Statistics Training - Data Exploration (PDF)
• SPSS Statistics Training - Correlations (PDF)
• SPSS Statistics Training - Contingency Tables (PDF)
• SPSS Statistics Training - Factor analysis (PDF)