LibGuides: Research Data Management: Discover and Reuse Data

Discovering Data

Where to Find Research Data?

There's lots of published data out there but it can be difficult to find sometimes! Here are some resources to get started.

Need a recommendation for a repository or search help for your research project? Contact researchdata@zu.ac.ae.

Type	Examples
Directories of repositories	Re3Data, OpenDOAR, FAIRsharing.org, DataCite
General repositories	OSF, FigShare, Zenodo, Mendeley Data, Harvard Dataverse, Dryad
Subject-specific repositories	Archeology Data Service, Cell Image Library, ICPR (social and behavioral sciences), Qualitative Data Repository
Regional repositories	UK Data Service, European data archives, North American data archives, Other worldwide data archives
Institutional repositories	University of Cambridge DSpace
Open data services	Bayanat - UAE Open Data Portal, CKAN, Datahub, City-Data, data.gov.uk, EU Open Data Portal
Data journals	Data in Brief, Scientific Data, BMC Research Notes
Supplementary data in journals	Some journals (e.g. PLOS One) have a section where you can download supplementary data for each article

Data Types


Raw Data	Microdata	Macrodata	Metadata
Data "as collected" from respondents, measurements or observations. Usually requires further processing.	Individual responses, measurements or observations. Usually processed and coded to specific classifications. This type of data is usually most useful to others and should be published as a separate dataset.	Data resulting from the aggregation of microdata. For example totals, averages, percentages and trends. Usually published in the final research article.	Data that describes the data, processes and tools. Also known as "data about data". Accompanies the dataset. Helps to find and reuse the data.
Adapted from: Australian Bureau of Statistics. Icons made by Freepik from www.flaticon.com

Data Citations

If you use a dataset published by others, you should cite the dataset just like you would cite an article. If you have published datasets yourself, you can even cite your own dataset to enable readers to find and reuse your data.

Citing a dataset...

Ensures scientific transparency
Provides credit for data creators, authors and data stewards
Helps tracking the impact of the dataset and the associated repository
Helps data authors verify how their data are being used

How to cite?
Use the citation style specified by your publisher. If no style is specified, include at least Authors, Publication year, Title of the data, Version ID, Publisher, Digital Object Identifier, Access date and time. For example:

Abdollahian, N., Jones, J.L., Ball, J.L., Wood, N.J., and Mangan, M.T., 2018, Data release for results of societal exposure to California's volcanic hazards (ver. 3.0, November 2019): U.S. Geological Survey data release, accessed February 10, 2020, at https://doi.org/10.5066/F7W66JRH

Source: USGS