GEOG 414: Data Sources for Climate Change: Home

Literature Databases

• Environmental Studies
• Geography

You may not be able to find exactly what you'd like.  Be prepared to be flexible on one or more of your question elements.

• Define the specific elements of your question:  time, geography and subject matter.
• Consider what organizations might pay for data collection on your topic.
  • government (international, national, state, local...)
  • trade associations
  • non-profits
  • academe (directly from a researcher or indirectly from a repository)
• Read the literature for possible sources, but beware that sources noted in articles may not be openly available.
• Will data be costly in terms of money or time to obtain?  Do you have the requisite knowledge to manipulate it?
• Cite your data to make them easier for others to find.  (The linked site provides guidelines for how to format data citations.)

• Read the technical documentation!
• Consider the purpose for which data were collected, and their limitations.
  • When was the data collected?  Will it be collected again?
  • Why was the data collected?  Who collected it?
  • Who is included in the data?  Who is not included?  What’s the scale?  
  • What’s the universe?  HH, people, families, people under 5, etc?
  • Understand the specifics of what you’re looking at (can be tricky with scientific datasets)
  • Are you looking at raw numbers or rates?  This is important!
  • How is the data represented (format)?  Nominal, Ordinal, Interval, Ratio?  Human vs. Machine readable?  Important for analysis
  • Can you transform the data or make it work with your other data?
  • Do you believe what you’re seeing?  Does it pass the smell test?
• Ask the experts (both about finding and understanding data).