This guide points to resources that can be used to search for and identify potentially relevant and useful sources of data across a variety of disciplines.

It also lists, briefly describes, and links to sources and repositories containing data, with a focus on open access sources and those available to University of Pittsburgh researchers. Both subject specific and multidisciplinary sources are included, although the listings are not comprehensive.

In addition to helping locate actual data for use in research, these lists may also help to locate repositories where you may be able to deposit copies of your research data to preserve and share them and to meet funder requirements.

There are a number of reasons why it might be important to look for compilations or sets of research data, including:

• To reuse existing data for new studies and research questions - saving time, effort and money for data collection
• To replicate or validate previous studies
• To compare results from different studies
• To reassess or reinterpret previous data
• To extend previous studies over time, geography, or other parameters by combining multiple data sets
• To test or develop computational models
• To locate individual facts or pieces of information that may be contained in a data set