Journalism Research Guide: Data
Get help finding data or performing statistical analyses: Schedule a data consultation with Lehman Library's Research Data Services (RDS). Browse data sources by topic, attend a workshop, drop by our Open Hours, or schedule a one-on-one appointment with one of our data specialists.
Research Data Services Open Hours: Monday through Thursday, 12:00 - 4:00 PM
Schedule an appointment: data@library.columbia.edu
Data Sources & Sets
Open Data
- NYCOpenData: New York City's public data depository.
- Data.gov: Catalog of over 256,089 datasets.
Population Data
- American Community Survey: nationwide survey conducted for the purpose of producing a socio-demographic description of the population. The survey is conducted on a continuous basis with reports being released annually.
- Current Population Survey: primary source of labor force statistics for the population of the United States
- Decennial Census: official determination of the number of people living in the United States. Conducted every ten years.
GIS/GeoSpatial Data
- Columbia University Spatial Data Catalog: Titles held by CU that are suitable for GIS-mapping applications.
- Geographic Names Information Service (US):Searchable geographic name database that provides type of feature (town, river, park, etc.), county, longitude and latitude, USGS topographic map sheet that shows feature and a general Tiger map showing location of feature within the US.
- GeoMapApp: An earth science exploration and visualization application.
- GIS Data on the Internet: Links to various GIS data sources
- NOAA Satellite Information Service: Satellite data (NOAA) Atmosphere, Ocean, Land, Space, Hazards.
- National Geologic Map Database: Housed under U.S. Geological Survey site and wonderful overview of all material.
Research Data Management
Research Data Management
- Why Manage Research Data?
- Data Management Planning: Requirements,Data Management Plan (DMP) Guidance & Templates, Writing a DMP
- Working with Data: Storage, File Formats, Describing Data (Metadata), Security
- Finalizing your Data: Data Appraisal & Selection, Data Publication, Data Repositories, Depositing Data in Academic Commons
- Sharing your Data: Why share?, Sharing Requirements, Data Ownership, Data Citation
- Data Tools & Resources
- Further information and Training opportunities
Data Citations
Cite data to give the data producer proper credit and to enable readers of your work to access the data, for their own use, or to replicate your results. Whether citing data, or expecting others to cite your data make sure that the following elements are provided:
- Creators
- Date: year of publication rather than collection or coverage
- Title
- Version or edition
- Publisher, data center or repository
- Identifier and/or permanent URL
Also see:
- Citing data from Academic Commons
- Basic Data Citation: A guide from DataPub & CDL; Data Citation Principles; Data Citation Examples
- Data Citation formatting tool: A tool to assist in formatting data citations
- Data Citation Index: An index for research data, including data studies and data sets, and links them to the scientific literature to track data citation