How to Find and Appraise Secondary Datasets
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If you’re a beginning researcher looking to become familiar with data resources, you might consider looking for secondary data. Secondary data is data that has been collected by one researcher for one purpose, but can be used by other researchers to answer other questions. Some secondary datasets are publicly available and can save time and money in allowing a researcher to use relevant data that has already been collected, rather than collecting it from scratch. VCU Libraries provides access to several resources that curate secondary datasets for research and teaching purposes. This webinar is designed to introduce you to these resources, show you where to find them using VCU Libraries guides, and to explore how some secondary dataset records are organized.
By the end of this webinar, participants will be able to:
- Define “secondary data”;
- Use VCU Libraries research guides to find secondary data resources;
- Choose a dataset based on a topic;
- Identify the components of a secondary dataset record;
- Review implications for using secondary datasets to inform your research.
Registration is required. After registering participants will receive the class URL via email.