Data: Home
Useful Data Terminology
AGGREGATE DATA or STATISTICS
The result of statistical analysis, often presented in a table. Totals, averages, and percentages are examples of aggregate data.
MICRODATA
Record of individual responses or observations, before statistical analysis has been applied. Sometimes referred to as "raw" data. Microdata usually needs to be interpreted using analysis software.
TIME SERIES DATA
Observations of the same variable (e.g., unemployment) made over time (e.g., annually).
GEOSPATIAL DATA
Data that includes geographic positioning information relative to a coordinate system. Geospatial data usually needs to be interpreted using GIS software.
TEXTUAL DATA
Speech and text data, including lexicons and text corpora.
Accessing Data
OPEN ACCESS
Freely available to view and download online. Government data is frequently open access.
MEDIATED (LIBRARY) ACCESS
Only accessible to the USask community. Requires login with your NSID/password, or the assistance of a Library employee.
RESTRICTED ACCESS
Access only via an application and vetting process. Various organizations, including Statistics Canada, have some data that is only accessible in this way.
Practice Working With Data
- SAGE Research Methods DatasetsA collection of teaching datasets and instructional guides that give students a chance to learn data analysis techniques by practicing themselves. Datasets are drawn from real research and are indexed by method, discipline, and data type. Please note: We only have access to Datasets Part 2.
