Ask the question: What organization or agency would likely collect this data?
- Government Agencies: Collect data at all levels to aid policy decisions. It is generally distributed free via the internet.
- Think Tanks, IGOs, NGOs: Many national and international organizations such as the United Nations, OECD, World Health Organization, National Health Institute, American Heart Association, and World Bank compile and distribute data both free and fee based.
1- Define Your Topic: Identify key concepts and scope including unit of measure, time frame, frequency and geographic coverage.
2- Define your unit of analysis:
- Geographic Unit: Local (City agencies), National (Federal agencies, research centers), International.
- Note: Not all data is available at the geographic level you need. Some data is only available at the state or county level.
- Frequency: Annual, Quarterly, Monthly (Some frequencies may need to be calculated).
- Time Series
- Cross sectional: collected at the same point of time for several individuals.
- Longitudinal/Panel: data collected at a sequence of time points for each of a sample of individuals.
- Time Series: data collected at a sequence of time points, usually at a uniform frequency.
- Pooled cross sectional time series: mixture of time series data and cross-section data
