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?
