What is OSIRIS and what is an OSIRIS dictionary file?

Developed in the 1960s and 1970s at the Institute for Social Research (University of Michigan), OSIRIS was a software package created to manage and analyze social science datasets. OSIRIS dictionaries are datamaps written in a special (EBCDIC/binary) format which function like SAS and SPSS setup files. The OSIRIS dictionary format must never be changed and such files should be downloaded only after invoking the binary option.

ICPSR has converted many of its collections with OSIRIS dictionaries only into SAS and SPSS setup files. The SAS OSIRIS interface library engine can still read OSIRIS dictionaries. Accompanying data files must be in EBCDIC. For more information on downloading and using these files, see the description file associated with every collection that contains an OSIRIS dictionary.