How do I find data?

Owned by Charlotte Reynolds
Last updated: May 10, 2023 by Bolu Adebambo
3 min read

The Browser is public facing data browser that allows researchers to discover and request access to datasets.

Features:

  • Search for datasets

  • Filter search results (by Keywords, Publisher Name, Data Use Limitation, Data Use Requirements, Access Service)

  • Browse dataset metadata

  • Request access to datasets

Use Cases:

Tutorial:

  1. To begin, open the Browser. You may choose to search for a specific dataset or simply browse the dataset using the filters to the left of the search results.

2. Filter by Keywords to only view datasets that relate to a certain topic(s).

3. Filter by Publisher Name to examine the data held by selected organisations.

4. Filter by Data Use Limitation to only view datasets with permissions that fit your use case.

5. Filter by additional Data Use Requirements to ensure you are viewing data that fits your use cases.

7. Filter by Access Service to only view datasets that use a specific access environment.

8. Click on a dataset to learn more about it.

10. Here you will find a summary of the dataset (title, organisation and abstract) and any attached media.

11. Click on the section headings to explore the data:

  • Summary: the first section includes a short abstract and contact details for the publisher

  • Documentation includes a rich text description of the dataset or links to media such as documents, images, presentations, videos or links to data dictionaries, profiles or dashboards

  • Coverage includes attributes for geographical and cohort details etc. to enable you to make decisions about the relevance of the underlying data

  • Provenance information allows you to understand data within the context of its origins and can be an indicator of quality, authenticity and timeliness

  • Accessibility information allows you to understand access, usage, limitations, formats, standards and linkage or interoperability with toolsets

  • Enrichment and Linkage includes information about related datasets that may have previously been linked, as well as indicating if there is the opportunity to link to other datasets in the future

  • Observations: this section holds a series of observations about a dataset, such as number of persons, events or findings

  • Structural Metadata: this describes the variables within a dataset

12. You can request access to the dataset using the contact details in the Summary section

Next Steps:

How do I request access to data?

What is Structural Metadata?