How to use opencis

Searching for studies, questions and series

search_cis() searches the CIS catalogue and returns a tibble with matching results. The catalogo argument controls what type of item is searched: "estudio" (default), "pregunta" or "serie". You can restrict results to a date range with from and to, and change the sort order with sort ("relevance", "publishDate-", "publishDate+").

library(opencis)

# Search for survey studies
search_cis(q = "preelectoral", from = "2020-01-01", to = "2023-11-17")

# Search for survey questions
search_cis(q = "feminismo", catalogo = "pregunta")

# Search for data series
search_cis(q = "situación económica", catalogo = "serie")

By default search_cis() returns only the first page of results. Use search_all_cis() to automatically paginate through all pages and get every matching result in a single tibble:

# Retrieve all postelectoral studies (all pages)
all_studies <- search_all_cis(q = "postelectoral")
print(nrow(all_studies))

# Filter by date range across all pages
studies <- search_all_cis(
  q    = "ideologia",
  from = "2010-01-01",
  to   = "2020-12-31"
)

search_all_cis() accepts the same arguments as search_cis().

Reading study data into R

read_cis() downloads the SPSS data file for a study and imports it directly into R as a labelled data frame (via haven):

df <- read_cis(3411)
print(df)

Exploring variables: the data dictionary

After loading a study with read_cis(), use get_data_dictionary() to obtain a tidy tibble with every variable name, its label and its value labels:

df   <- read_cis(3328)
dict <- get_data_dictionary(df)
print(dict)

# Find variables whose label contains a keyword
dict[grepl("sexo", dict$label, ignore.case = TRUE), ]

# Inspect value labels for a specific variable
dict$value_labels[[which(dict$variable == "SEXO")]]

Getting study metadata

get_metadata() retrieves the technical information sheet of a study from the CIS website — field dates, study type, country, authorship, thematic indices, etc. — and returns it as a two-column tibble (field, value):

meta <- get_metadata(3328)
print(meta)

Downloading the ZIP file to disk

If you want to keep the raw data files instead of reading them into a temporary directory, use download_study(). It saves the ZIP archive to any local folder:

# Save to the current working directory
path <- download_study(3328)
cat("Saved to:", path, "\n")

# Save to a specific folder
path <- download_study(3328, destdir = "data/raw")
cat("Saved to:", path, "\n")

Browsing the questionnaire and technical sheet

browse_pdf() extracts the PDF documents bundled inside the study ZIP and opens them in your default browser. CIS ZIPs typically include two PDFs:

• Questionnaire (wanted_file = "cues", default)
• Technical sheet (wanted_file = "ft")

# Open the questionnaire for study 3328
browse_pdf(3328)

# Open the technical sheet
browse_pdf(3328, wanted_file = "ft")