Data are generated, collected, and analyzed by a variety of people, institutions, and agencies for a variety of different purposes.
One of the first places you may encounter references to research data is when you are starting to read through journal articles, newspapers, reports, and other written material about your topic of interest.
The references you find may lead you to some of the entities that generate or collate data and/or statistics, including:
- Government agencies (local and national)
- International organizations
- Repositories where researchers and research teams can archive and share their data
- Databases from companies that take existing data from many sources and compile them in elaborate ways for users. These sources usually have a steep cost. Examples of databases the library subscribes to are shown in the Find Data: ODU Databases section.
