SPSS — Statistical Package for the Social Sciences

 

SPSS is a statistics package which runs on Windows and Macintoshes. The currently supported versions at the university are versions 19 and 20.

The University has a yearly agreement with with IBM to license SPSS to eligible faculty and GTFs using university owned machines. The agreement is renegotiated every year in December. What this means is that specific copies of SPSS may detect that their license has expired and stop running on January 1. It is prudent to schedule research around the new year to avoid critical data analysis during any gaps between an old license expiring and a new license's agreement.

Students and faculty who wish to install SPSS on personal machines are encouraged to purchase SPSS through http://www.e-academy.com/.

Getting An Authorization Code

In order to install a new copy of SPSS or relicense an old one, you'll first need an authorization code.

  1. The new codes may be found here: http://it.uoregon.edu/software/list
  2. Click on the word "Login", located in the upper-right-hand corner of the page (I find I have to suppress the urge to try to log in using the search box directly above the word "login").
  3. Use your UO ID to log in.
  4. Scroll to the bottom of http://it.uoregon.edu/software/list and click on the link for SPSS
  5. The SPSS page will come up. Scroll down. Make sure to read the "Licensing and Restrictions" section to be sure that you are in compliance with the site license.
  6. If you've successfully logged in, when you scroll all the way to the bottom of this page, there will be a bunch of links located in the section titled "Software Available for Download".
  7. Click on the link titled "SPSS Authorization Code." This will open up a .doc document in the Word Processor of Your Choice.
  8. The codes are long. Use your computer's mouse to highlight and copy them (you'll paste them a little later). Make sure you use the proper code for the version of SPSS installed on the computer.

Downloading a New Copy of SPSS

If you already have a copy of SPSS on your computer, you can skip this section and go to the License Authorization Wizard section.

If you need a new copy of SPSS, you can select one of the links in the "Software Available for Download" section of http://it.uoregon.edu/software/spss (remember to log into the page in order to see the Software Download section). .

Hint: Copies of SPSS for "Windows X86" are for older 32-bit machines (no, it's not intuitive). Copies of SPSS for "Windows X64" are (more intuitively) for newer 64-bit machines.

Advanced Hint: Occasionally under Windows 7, the SPSS 20 installation software has been known to get confused about the location of CAB files during installation. Instead of installing SPSS, a dialog box appears with a message about being unable to find [a long file directory]/something.CAB. If this happens, write down the full directory name in the dialog box, then cancel the install (the installer will clean up the failed attempt). Create the directory manually. The CAB files typically are in the same directory as the SPSS install program, or in a sub-folder named CABS; copy all the CAB files from the SPSS install directory into the manually created directlry. Re-start the SPSS install program.

The Licensing Authorization Wizard

The Licensing Authorization Wizard is software that talks with IBM and enables SPSS to run on your computer. It should start automatically after a first-install of SPSS. If you're re-licensing a previously installed copy of SPSS, you'll need to start the wizard manually.

  1. Start the SPSS licensing wizard. The wizard should live in the same folder or shortcut area as SPSS. For example, on a Macintosh with SPSS 19, the wizard is found at

    Applications > IBM > SPSS > Statistics > 19 > License Authorization Wizard

    On a Windows Machine, the wizard may be more obscurely named LAW.EXE. For example, on a Windows Machine the wizard might be found at something like

    C:\Program Files\IBM\SPSS\Statistics\19\law.exe

  2. When you first run the wizard, it will list what SPSS packages you are licensed for, and when they expire. There should be a NEXT button; click on it.
    1. There will be an option to license a product, or enabled it temporarily. Choose "License my product now" and then press NEXT.
    2. The next screen the wizard displays will be where you enter the code. Paste in the code you copied earlier in step 8 of the first section. Click NEXT.
    3. The wizard will connect to IBM, talk with the licensing server there, and then tell you if the licensing worked or not (it should). Click NEXT.
    4. The wizard should tell you that the licensing will go into effect the next time you run SPSS. There will be additional license expiration information. Click FINISH
  3. The wizard should close. Open SPSS to confirm that it runs as expected.

John Burridge, Web Communications Technician ⚣ he/him/his
University of Oregon, Robert D. Clark Honors College
M-F: 8AM-Noon, 1PM-3PM     burridge@uoregon.edu     http://pages.uoregon.edu/burridge