Statistics

1. Think about who might collect the data.

• Could it have been collected by a government agency?
• A nonprofit/nongovernmental organization?
• A private business or industry group?
• Academic researchers?

2. Look for publications that cite the dataset

• e.g. scholarly articles or government reports.

3. Once you know that what you want exists, it's time to hunt it down.

• Is it freely available on the web? Check Google—you never know!
• Or part of a package to which the library already subscribes?
• Is it something we can buy? (And is it within the library's budget and can the purchase be made quickly enough to fit your timeframe?)
• Can it be requested directly from the researcher? There’s a reason articles usually include author contact information.

From UC San Diego Library, Finding Data & Statistics: What is Data?