How to Find Data

Depending on the data you're looking for, searching for datasets can be relatively easy. Census data and scientific data are often collected by non-profit organizations, government agencies, or researchers at large who can share their data relatively freely. Commercial data—financials, market share reports, etc.—can be harder to come by as it is often only available in commercial databases. The Fulton Library subscribes to some of these databases (see our Business: Company Research guide or the Additional Data Set Resources page of this guide).

Some of the databases and resources we link to in this guide can be complicated to use, especially the ones that offer tools to create custom reports. As you search, look for tutorials or tool tips for explanations on how to use the various options in these resources. 

For best results:

• Keep your searches as simple as possible. Rather than searching for extremely detailed data or statistics (e.g. Italian speakers with PhDs with an annual income of $20,000), focus on the important parts of your project. Do you need to know how many Americans have PhDs? Search for educational attainment. Do you need to know the annual average income of Americans? Search for average annual income. 
  • NOTE: Some databases, such as the U.S. Census database, will let you combine different data sets to answer more complicated research questions.
• Use the language/terminology of the data set. The U.S. Census uses the phrase "educational attainment" to talk about how much schooling people have had. Rather than type out long questions, look for those shorthand phrases. 
• Pay attention to dates as you search. Unless you are working on a history project, you generally want the latest data available. 
• Save citation information as you go! Save links. Make notes about where your data came from. Not only will this help you find the data again, it will help when it comes time to format your citations. 

It's always important to evaluate the datasets you find. And, if you use one of the data aggregators such as Google Dataset Search or Kaggle, this step is especially important.

As you search for data, ask:

• Who collected this data? What are their credentials? What is their reputation?
• Is this data current? 
  • The US Census collects most of its data every 10 years, which means that some of its datasets can be very out of date depending on your research project.
• What is included in the data? Are there important omissions?
  • Medical and scientific research might be limited to specific populations to remove extra variables. This data may need to be compared to other datasets before results can be generalized. 

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