MS8: Finding Data and Statistics

1. Think about who might collect the data.

• Could it have been collected by a government agency?
• A nonprofit/nongovernmental organization?
• A private business or industry group?
• Academic researchers?

2. Look for publications that cite the dataset

• e.g. scholarly articles or government reports.

3. Once you know that what you want exists, it's time to hunt it down.

• Is it freely available on the web? Check Google—you never know!
• Or part of a package to which the library already subscribes?
• Can it be requested directly from the researcher? There’s a reason articles usually include author contact information

What is the difference between a dataset and a study?

A dataset is a building block of a data collection or study. It is a file containing cases or observations, and the data collected for each case are presented in a grid format.

A study is a detailed investigation and analysis of subjects or situations. It is a collection of data containing one or more datasets, as well as codebooks, data collection instrument files, reports, and other related materials, associated with each dataset.