Finding and reusing data

How do I find data? 

Find a relevant archive, data repository, or service

• Look for discipline-specific databases: 
  • re3data ¨C a search engine that will help you find databases and data archives specific to your field of research 
  • FAIRsharing Databases ¨C a search engine for databases and data archives that follow the FAIR principles
• Browse general purpose databases and data archives: 
  • Sikt (formerly NSD) ¨C a national archive maintained by Sikt with a focus on preserving data from social sciences, humanities, and some medical and health research. Sikt curates archived data over time. 
  • NIRD ¨C a national general-purpose archive. The archive ensures that data remain accessible for up to 10 years. 
  • DataverseNO ¨C a national, general-purpose archive where you can store data from any field of research. DataverseNO curates archived data over time but it also has certain size restrictions on the files you can deposit (see deposit guidelines for details). 
  • Zenodo ¨C EU¡¯s general-purpose archive. Here you can archive data from any field of research. 
  • Open Science Framework (OSF) ¨C an international open science platform where you can register your project and deposit your data from any field of research. Data is not curated over time on the OSF platform. 
  • Figshare ¨C an international general purpose open repository for storing research materials and data. No curation is provided for the stored datasets. 
• Look for specific datasets: 
  • Google Dataset Search ¨C allows to search through existing datasets through using simple keywords (similar to a regular Google search) 
  • Bielefield Academic Search Engine (BASE) ¨C allows to narrow down the search to just datasets 
• Other resources: 
  • Norwegian Institute of Public Health (Folkehelseinstituttet) ¨C provides access to health records and health surveys 
  • Statistics Norway (SSB) ¨C provides microdata for research projects 
  • Data papers and literature 

Search for relevant datasets

Remember to:

• Familiarize yourself with the structure of the data resource 
• Register yourself as a user 
• Learn how the data repository's advanced search functions work 
• Develop a search strategy
• Ask for help by contacting us at research-data@uio.no

How do I set up a search strategy? 

Setting up search queries is quite similar when searching for literature and datasets so you can find more information on search strategies in our S?k og Skriv (English) resources or take a look at the PhD on track data search section. You can also book an appointment with your subject librarian and they can walk you through different search strategies.

In general, remember to: 

• Choose the right keywords 
  • Use the terms from your discipline 
  • Focus on main concepts 
  • Think of possible synonyms 
• Use boolean operators (if allowed) 
  • Terms such as AND, OR
• Add ?data? or ?dataset? to the search query in general search engines (e.g. Web of Science)

If your search is too narrow

• Check your spelling 
• Use more general search terms  
• Turn off some of the filters you applied 
• Use more synonyms 

If your search is too broad

• Use more specific search terms 
• Use more search terms 
• Use more filters 
• Check the use of boolean logic (is it applied correctly?) 

Things to consider when re-using existing data

• Double-check if you can use the data you found. For example, are the data relevant to your research questions and are the variables appropriate?
• Check if the quality of the data is sufficient
• Make sure that you can access the data. For example, do you need to pay for the access or do you apply and wait for access approval? 

Why should we reuse data? 

• Collecting new data takes a lot of resources, both for data acquisition and storage 
• Different sets of primary data can be redundant and different researchers might collect the same types of data unknowingly  
• Increasing amount of data poses high demands for limited storage space  
• Reusing data promotes research transparency and reproducibility; the more we use others¡¯ data the more likely are we to spot inconsistencies or errors in datasets

Need advice?

Contact us at: research-data@uio.no