Underneath many scholarly articles, reports, and books lie data sets collected over years and decades by researchers, government agencies, and others. In recent years there has been a dedicated effort to digitize data sets to make it easier for scholars, researchers, and you to analyze existing data to create new findings.
This guide offers advice on searching for data plus links to useful data sources. Some of the resources we link to even offer tools for creating your own reports or data visualizations.
Note that the Fulton Library does not offer assistance in interpreting data.
We like to think of data and statistics as irrefutable. Who can argue with the numbers, after all? The truth is that all these numbers are trustworthy only if they are collected and analyzed ethically.
As you collect your data:
As you analyze and interpret your data:
These general data resources cover many topics. More specialized resources are listed on the Additional Data Set Resources page of this guide.
Non-peer reviewed. Full-text content. Statistical & research data.
Statista offers quantitative data on media, business, finance, politics, and a wide variety of other markets. Includes infographics and other data, such as statistics, forecasts, studies, dossiers, and industry reports.
Non-peer reviewed. Full-text content. Open access. Statistical & research data.
Indexes data from the latest U.S. Census, including population, education, business, economic, and ethnic information. This database can be used to locate statistics and create custom tables of census data.