How To Find Pdf Statistics

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Zita Lifland

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Aug 3, 2024, 3:14:03 PM8/3/24

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This report is the 26th in a series of annual publications produced jointly by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) and the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), Institute of Education Sciences, Department of Education. It provides summary statistics to inform the nation about...

This report presents counts and rates of allegations of inmate-on-inmate and staff-on-inmate sexual victimization across all types of adult correctional facilities. Summary-level information is presented for...

Remember to define your topic with enough flexibility to adapt to available data!
Data is not available for every thinkable topic. Some data is hidden (behind a pay-wall for example), uncollected, unavailable. Be prepared to try alternative data.

Government Agencies

The government collects data to aid in policy decisions and is the largest producer of data overall. For example, the U.S. Census Bureau, Federal Election Commission, Federal Highway Administration and many other agencies collect and publish data. To better understand the structure of government agencies read the U.S. Government Manual and browse FedStats. Government data is free and publicly available, but may require access through library resources or special requests.

Academic Institutions

Academic research projects funded by public and private foundations create a wealth of data. For example, the Michigan State of the State Survey, Panel Study of Income Dynamics, American National Election Studies, and many other research projects collect and publish data. Much of this type of data is free and publicly available, but may require access through library resources. Access to smaller original research projects may be dependent upon contacting individual researchers.

Private Sector

Commercial firms collect and publish data as a paid service to clients or to sell broadly. Examples include marketing firms, pollsters, trade organizations, and business information. This information is almost always is fee-based and may not always be available for public release. The library does subscribe to some commercial data services, particularly through the business library.

Unfortunately, citation of research data is often incomplete. Sometimes the best you will get is the title of the data set used, but check to see if the data or a related publication are cited and follow it up. Don't commit this fallacy when you publish, cite your data.

Try the search strategies for statistics detailed on the "Finding Statistics" tab of this guide. Where does the statistic you find come from? Can you track it down to the source survey or other data set?

Depending on which search strategy you used, you may have already found the dataset file download link directly on a website. Or, you may have just a reference/citation to a dataset or producer. Here are some common ways to find the dataset files themselves.

The Center for Statistical Training and Consulting (CSTAT) is the primary unit on campus that assists with data analysis. CSTAT is a professional service and research unit that aims to support research and provide training and consulting in statistics for faculty, staff and graduate students.

This tool is intended to provide information on voting in the state of Louisiana. Although the Louisiana Department of State makes reasonable efforts to present accurate and reliable information through the tool, the information is subject to change and correction.

Please do not submit any confidential, proprietary or sensitive personally identifiable information (e.g. Social Security Number; date of birth; or drivers license number) (collectively, "Sensitive Information"). If you submit any Sensitive Information, you do so at your own risk and we will not be liable to you or responsible for consequences of your submission.

File names have been standardized for easy reference and sorting and include the year; month and day; parish or state. Statistical reports prior to 2007 also have active, inactive, or combined active and inactive files.

The total number of votes is listed under the VOTES column on the far left. The second VOTES column breaks down the number of in person and mail voters. In person is represented as INP and ABS includes the number of voters casting mail ballots.

UOCAVA (Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act) represents the number of voters exercising their right to vote who are military and overseas civilians. The IN column represents voters residing in the USA and OUT represents voters residing outside of the country.

The names of voters includes those who voted in person during early voting and those whose absentee ballots have been received by the registrar of voters. This list of voters does not account for subsequent changes, if any, made by a registrar. Those changes will be found on the cumulative report at the end of early voting.

Post election turnout statistics are published after all parish registrar of voters complete their work in giving each voter credit for voting in the election and auditing. This may take up to two weeks following the election.

Free software is required to view some content on this site. If you are having problems accessing a file, click the file type below to install the necessary software:
PDF (Adobe Acrobat Viewer) DOC or DOCX (Microsoft Word Viewer) XLS or XLSX (Microsoft Excel Viewer)

Inclusion of erroneous statistical data can harm the credibility of your research. Therefore, it is very important to evaluate the source of your statistical information. The following questions will help you to evaluate the reliability of statistical information.

Statistical data will lend credibility to your research by providing facts and figures supporting your position. Therefore, statistics may be important to include in your class assignments, research papers, and theses. However, statistical data is not always easy to find since there is no single source for this type of information. Statistics may come from scholarly journals, magazines, newspapers, reports, websites, books, statistical databases, and more.

It is important to keep in mind that the most current statistics may actually be a year old or more. Organizations publish reports and statistics according to the data collection cycle (not necessarily annual), the time it takes to analyze and report the data, and the public release schedule.

This guide outlines several techniques and resources for finding and evaluating statistical data. When searching, it is important to keep in mind that the precise information you need may not exist; the data may never have been collected. In other cases, data might be held privately; not all data is available to the public. Be flexible and consider alternative measures to support your research.

Additionally, you may browse Statista using the drop-down menu at the top of the screen. To browse by industry, recent and popular statistics, or by topic, hover over the Statistics menu, as shown below.

You may download Statista charts in the form of a .png image, or as Excel, PowerPoint, or Adobe Arobat files. These charts are permitted for use in your papers and presentations, as long as you properly cite the original source of the data in your research, not the Statista database. For details on properly citing Statista, see the next tab.

Charts can be customized under settings. Click on the Gear icon to change the chart type and data labels. In case a chart looks overcrowded with data labels, you can, for instance, remove individual labels by clicking on them, before downloading the statistic by selecting Custom.

Please note that this information only serves as guidance. Use the Academic Success Center website to learn about coaching and access writing, statistics, editing, and APA Style resources. The Academic Success Center provides access to Academic Writer, which provides over 150 sample references, as well as nearly 10 sample papers. It also incorporates all of the references and other content from the Publication Manual.

Start here to look up data and statistics on a topic or to find data by type.
For a broader search, go to Frequently Used Sources to access popular, useful, and reliable sources for locating data.

Thomson/Refinitiv and Refinitiv Datastream provide significant current and historical data for securities markets worldwide; equity coverage; comprehensive market indices; fixed income securities and more. Note: Available online through the WRDS portal. WRDS is a restricted resource so please only sign up for an account if your need is specifically for these data. Unsure? Please email Kayla Gourlay, Business and Economics Librarian, or data...@gmu.edu for information.

The library has compiled numerous guides on looking for data, and many are linked to on the Statistics by Topic or Type page. Below is a selection of guides which focus on using specialized data techniques.

Depending on your research topic and design, you may need to use datasets or statistics. There are many sources for datasets and statistics. Below are just a sampling of where this information may be found online. Most are freely available except where otherwise noted and some are Bentley Library databases. Some sources below include both statistic and data resources.

Also, keep in mind that many data set sources do not have citation generators that can accurately cite a data set. Consult the style guide for whatever citation style you are using (APA, MLA, etc.) for an example of how to cite a data set to know what information you will need to construct your citation.

Compiled by the U.S. Census, International Statistical Agencies provides links to the official statistical agencies for countries of the world (note: some sites may not provide content in English). Scroll to the bottom of the page to see the full list of countries. Free resource.