Welcome!
New to data research? Or maybe you need a little refresher? Read through the page on Searching for Data for some quick questions that will get you started.
Working with data requires statistical software, and Northeastern University provides a number of applications that can be used for statistical analysis.
You may also be interested in the resources on the Social Science Statistics guide.
Looking for information about data curation or data management? The library offers data services for you.
Examples of how NOT to do data visualizations are presented at WTF Visualizations
Data or Statistics?
The words data and statistics are often used interchangeably, but are not quite the same thing.
Data can be thought of as the information collected during a study. Data are the results of measuring variables. Data can be qualitative (e.g. eye color) or quantitative (e.g. annual income).
Statistics are produced when data is looked at in aggregate form, analyzed, and organized.
Hint: If the information you're looking at is expressed as a chart, table, or graph, you're looking at statistical information. See the Social Science Statistics Guide for recommended sources of statistics.
Selected Interdisciplinary Data Sources
- ICPSRICPSR maintains and provides access to a vast archive of social science data for research and instruction.
- Roper Center iPoll DatabankTo download data, create a personalized account.
- BARI (Boston Area Research Initiative)Boston Data Portal (Boston Data Library and BostonMap). Hosted at Northeastern University.
- Internet Crossroads in Social Science DataFrom the University of Wisconsin - Madison.
- Data Citation Index (1900 - current) (Clarivate) This link opens in a new windowThe Data Citation Index provides a single point of access to quality research data from repositories across disciplines and around the world. DCI runs on the Web of Knowledge platform.
- Data Sharing for Demographic ResearchA data archive for demography and population sciences.
- Human Rights Data Analysis GroupStatisticians for human rights--we show statistics have human consequences.
- IQSS NetworkSearch social science research data by searching across or browsing through one of the virtual data archives, or "dataverses" on the Dataverse Project at Harvard. You may also create a dataverse of your own to share your social science data and get a formal persistent citation.
- UK Data ArchiveThe UK's largest collection of digital research data in the social sciences and humanities
- EU Open Data PortalThe EU Open Data Portal is a Pan European data portal, providing access to open, freely reusable datasets from local, regional and national public bodies across Europe
Need help?
If you've gone through this guide and find that you need additional help, please contact us!
The Ask-A-Librarian page provides a variety of ways you can get in touch with us here at the library.
Tutorials on statistical software such as SPSS are listed under the Software and Virtualization Tools tab on this guide.