Finding existing research data

After searching for literature, an important preparatory step in research is to investigate whether there are already data that you can use to answer your research question. Reusing research data can prevent duplication of data collection, can enrich your own project and can also be very useful for students who do research for their bachelor or master thesis.

Existing research data can be found on OpenAIRE; and also the online database Statline of Statistics Netherlands (CBS) has much to offer in terms of social and economic data in the Netherlands. 

Besides that, you can find a lot of data in online data repositories, such as DataverseNL. The databases GESIS (Eurobarometer) and ICPSR (social sciences, medical sciences, educational sciences and economics data) offer the option to search for variables. In the beta research domains are often field-specific repositories available. Go to re3data.org to find a suitable repository.

More information about searching for existing research data can be found in our Library Guide 'Discovering Existing Research Data'. This includes information about different repositories where data can be discovered and information about the (re)use of secondary data sources. 

Before using existing research data, there are a few things you should take into account: 

• Check the reliability of the data source
• Is the data from a collaborating organisation?
  • Check if they require you to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA). Does the NDA allow you to use the data for publication? 
• What are the requirements/conditions for using the data? Is an ethical review required?
• Which license applies to the data? See Creative Commons for more information about licenses for data.
• Make sure that you cite the source of the data. 

 More information can be found in our Library Guide Discovering Existing Research Data.