The qualitative interview study focused on the research career of the most important sociologists in Finland in the time period of 1978-1981. The data consist of 30 interview transcripts. Research careers were studied stage by stage, from the start of sociology studies to research activities at the time of the interview. The interviews charted what had made the sociologists to choose sociology, who had had most influence on their studies and research, doctoral thesis process, reactions to the thesis, subsequent career, what factors influenced their choice of research themes, their international cooperation networks, and key publication and information source channels. The dataset is only available in Finnish.