This guide provides resources for open data, an overview of popular data visualization tools, and tools to help you create your own data visualizations.
Data is an extremely important facet of the research process, but can often prove confusing. It can be messy, convoluted, and hard to conceptualize. The data you have may not actually answer the questions you're asking. Or alternatively, you may have come up with some promising answers to those questions, but be unclear how to communicate a connection between these claims and the data itself for your readers.
Data visualization is the term for information collected and expressed in the form of an image, chart, graph, plot, cloud, tree or other graphical means. Presenting data in a visual way can make your research more engaging as it is an extremely helpful resource in investigating, analyzing, and communicating research data. When used effectively, data visualization can help a reader grasp a trend or correlation intuitively and near-instantaneously, no matter how complex the underlying data may be.
Not sure where to start? Data Basics offers a brief introduction to data literacy.
Topics covered include:
Find these resources through the library's databases. You must be logged in with your Connecticut College credentials to access these sources.
Choose from an extensive repository of statistical data sources containing more than 90 billion data points from more than 70 source organizations.
IBIS World
The world's leading provider of industry research, providing market size, industry statistics, data, trends, and forecasts for thousands of US and global industries.
Explore hundreds of thousands of built-in data indicators related to demography, economy, health, politics, environment, crime and more. Easily add your own data for further impact.
Consolidates statistical data on over 80,000 topics from more than 22,500 sources.