Research Data Management: Searching for Research Data

Step 1: Narrow Down the Research Question

Before diving into your search, take a minute to think about what data you are interested in and where it might be located. Review the library's Evidence-Based Practice (EBP) guide for advice on focusing your topic and using PICO:

1. What is the topic? What are the key concepts? (ex: cervical cancer screening, infant mortality)
2. What is the unit of analysis? (ex: older adults, families, hospitals)
3. What region? (ex: United States, Nation, Omaha)
4. What time period? (ex: Date limits)
5. What variables do you need for your research?
6. Who would have this kind of data? (ex: government, health department, organizations/committees, etc.)

Once I have my topic, now what?

There are many ways to find research data. You can search directly in a data repository, review the literature to see what other data researchers are citing, or try a Google search. Depending on your topic one approach might work best or you might need to try all three.

Step 2: Searching the Literature via PubMed

By searching PubMed you can find articles where other researchers have cited or linked to data relevant to your research topic. Here are some tips:

• Use the filter: "Associated data" or add the data[Filter] to your search string
• Additional searching PubMed tips and guidance.

Step 3: Searching Data Repositories

Data repositories are excellent places to search for data, especially if there is a repository for your discipline or data type. Below are data repositories broken down by topic/subject area.

Clinical Data

Social Sciences & Public Health Data

Biomedical Data

Other Places to Find Data and Data Repositories

Step 4: Searching the Web via Google

Google is a great resource for finding data that is located on government websites as well as in data repositories. Here are some tips for refining your search:

• Search with keywords. For example: (data AND "cervical cancer screening") OR ("data repository" AND cancer)
• Use Google search tools
  • intitle: to find page titles with specific keywords (ex: "cervical cancer screening" AND intitle:data)
  • site:. to filter to certain website domains (ex: site:.org, site:.com, site:.edu)
  • filetype: to filter to certain kinds of files (ex: filetype:csv for spreadsheets)

Step 5: Other Options for Finding Data

If you are still not finding the data you need consider these other steps:

• If data is collected by an organization the data may be located on their website
• Networking! Reach out to colleagues for permission and access to datasets