Communication Design

Consider what kind of data you are looking for:

• Do I want time series data (data that is measured over time) or not?
• What is my research area? Do I need a specific geographic coverage?
• Am I looking for data on a specific population?
• What format of data do I need? A .csv? A geospatial file?

Once you have determined the type of data you need, consider where this data may be found - who might collect this data? 

• If you are looking for a data on a specific population, consider whether or not the government might collect this data.
• If you are looking for geographical or historical data, consider what organization might also be interested in this information.

If you are interested in using someone else's data set, make sure that you either have permission or that you are using a data set from an open access website.

Remember...

• Raw data is unprocessed or unedited data.  
• Data is a set of values of either quantitative or qualitative variables. Once data has been collected, it is cleaned up for analysis.

Advice for Finding Data and Statistics

• Identify who would have collected the data and/or the statistics
  • Federal governments, state governments, local governments or agencies 
  • A nonprofit or community organization
  • Industry group or private business 
  • Academic researchers 

• When looking for data, clearly define what data you need. Ask yourself questions about the type of data you are looking for.
  • Qualitative Data: Non-numerical data. 
    • Ex: eye color, socioeconomic status
  • Quantitative Data: Numerical data.
    • Ex: height, shoe size
  • Continuous Data: Continuous data can have an infinite number of values and therefore 0 is not meaningful. 
    • Ex: weight, height
  • Discrete Data: Discrete data has finite values and a meaningful 0. 
    • Ex: number of people living in a household
  • Time-Series: Studying the same variable over time; the instrument is the same but different people will be used.  
  • Longitudinal: Typically are surveys that are taken over time with the same people, but not always the same survey or instrument.