Gaining access to external data sources
There are a number of external data sources that allow secondary use of data for research purposes. These include data from governments, licensed data, data linkage services and re-use of other researchers’ data via repositories and catalogues.
Before starting your search for external data sources, make sure you understand:
- Your topic and research question: Be clear on what data is needed to answer your research question
- Unit of analysis: Who or what are you studying? Be clear about what you are focussing on (e.g. may be about individuals, groups, organisations, countries etc. but will this be affected by location (geographic area you may be focussing on) or timeframe?)
When you find data sources, it is important to assess the quality of the data. For more information on data quality, please go to the Data Quality section, but specific considerations include:
- Audience: Understand why the data was produced – and who for
- Credibility: Check the credibility of the source
- Accuracy: Review data collection methods
- Currency: Consider when the data was collected and whether it is still valid
If you find data you'd like to reuse, it is important you understand the Copyright/ Intellectual Property implications of reusing other data. Resources about copyright and licensing the use of third-party data are available from the Library.
