Use of existing data
If you intend to reuse existing data instead of collecting it yourself, there are good sources for potentially relevant existing data. The following (directories of) archives may be relevant sources for finding data.
Directories of data archives
| Open Access Directory: Data repositories | Data repositories listed by discipline. Here you will find, among others things, the important social sciences repositories ICPSR (for political and social research) and CESSDA (Council of European Social Science Archives) |
| Re3data.org |
An extensive directory of data archives all over the world and covering all disciplines. You can browse by subject, type of data and country to find data archives. You can also search by keywords and filter on certification, open-access availability and the use of persistent identifiers |
| UK Data Archive | Directory of international data archives with search options. The prominent national data archives of Europe are presented on a clickable map |
| EOSC Portal | The European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) Portal offers a catalogue of resources and services for Open Science. |
Dutch data archives
| Radboud Data Repository (RDR) | Data repository for Radboud University researchers to archive and/or publish their research data. It contains data from several research fields, among which humanities, social sciences, life sciences, law and technical sciences. |
| DANS | Data archive for the humanities, social sciences and life sciences. DANS is a certified archive (Data Seal of Approval) |
| 4TU.ResearchData | Archive for technical data. 4TU.researchData is a certified archive (Data Seal of Approval) |
| CLARIN-NL |
Archives for linguistic datasets. |
Statistical data
| CBS | For the Netherlands, CBS is the best-known provider of statistical data. It offers Statline, where researchers can find data and it also provides tailor-made solutions for finding and using data |
| (Inter)national statistical organisations | In other countries organisations similar to CBS provide statistical data. A wealth of statistical data can also be found at international organisations such as WHO, OECD, UN etc. UNECE provides an overview of national and international statistics organisations |
| Financial data |
At Radboud University you can find financial data, (macro) economic data and corporate data in the following databases:
The library of the Nijmegen School of Management offers assistance in finding financial data |
| Governmental data |
You make check out data.overheid.nl for governmental data |
Data archives should adhere to quality standards for the data they store and to which they provide access. To judge the quality of a data archive, you may check:
- The repository’s policy and guidelines
- Any certification it holds, such as the CoreTrustSeal and ISO/DIN standards
- The use of persistent identifiers such as DOI’s, which ensure the findability of the data
Persistent identifiers are comparable to ISBN numbers in books. Even if the underlying infrastructure changes, the path referring you to the digital object (i.e. the dataset) will remain intact.
Be aware that there may be restrictions on what you may do with data that you yourself have not created.