Research Data

Research data is any data that has been collected, generated or created (no authorship) during a research project. It may be raw, cleaned, or processed (via machine) and may be held in any format or media. It may also be referred to as primary material.

Providing an authoritative definition of data is challenging. It can come in different forms and formats including physical or digital, experimental or observational, qualitative or quantitative, raw or processed.

The following table contains some examples of types of data:

Types of data	Example	Importance
Observational data	Presence/absence, sensor readings	Usually irreplaceable
Physical data	Rock samples, blood samples, plants, interview transcripts, diaries	Usually irreplaceable
Experimental data	Gene sequences, chromatograms	Reproducible, but expensive
Simulation data	Climate models (model and its inputs are the most important thing here)
Derived/Compiled data/information	Compiled databases	Reproducible, but expensive