Authority in Data - EDUC Y639 | Multilevel Modeling - Library Research Guides at Indiana University

Investigating the Authority of Data

To avoid using data in a way that perpetuates systemic racism and injustice, it is critical to investigate the authority of data producers and reporters and determine. Data is not neutral. Datasets necessarily reflect their producer's expertise, credibility, and bias. Use this guide to help you investigate the authority of both the datasets you encounter and that of scholars reporting and interpreting the data.

Guiding Questions

Investigate the Source

Was data collected by individual researchers or an organization?
Could an affiliation of the producer affect the work?
Why was the data collected in the first place?
Is the data source different from the reporter or citer?
If the data are repackaged, can you identify the original source?

Investigate Impact

What is the impact of the producer? How often is their work used or cited?
What is the impact of the data? Is it cited often?
How is the data used in the research? How does their use compare with yours?
Do peers have objections to the measure or producer?

Tools to Research Your Data

Tools to Discover Impact: Selective Scope

ICPSR Bibliography of Data Related Literature

Tools to Discover Impact: Broad Scope

Google Scholar
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oogle Scholar enables you to search specifically for scholarly literature, including peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts and technical reports from all broad areas of research. Use Google Scholar to find articles from a wide variety of academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories and universities, as well as scholarly articles available across the web.

Connecting to Google Scholar from off-campus? The IUB Libraries already provide access to many of the journal articles indexed in Google Scholar. Look for IU-Link, which will lead you to information about full-text content you can access via the Libraries' subscriptions.
ProQuest Social Sciences
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Allows users to simultaneously search a collection of ProQuest Social Science databases.
OneSearch@IU
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Tools to Investigate Organizations or Agencies

GuideStar Pro
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Under the auspices of Candid, this resource provides information and data on nonprofit organizations.
Allows users to search and filter organizations by granular income, expense, assets, and number of employees, as well as analyze an organization's year-over-year profit, revenue, expenses. Users can also verify organizations’ current IRS status with GuideStar Charity Check, and see nonprofit contractors. In-depth nonprofit information is available for download, users are limited to 1,000 downloads per month.

Government Accountability Office
GAO provides Congress, the heads of executive agencies, and the public with timely, fact-based, non-partisan information that can be used to improve government and save taxpayers billions of dollars. (from website)
Better Business Bureau | Wise Giving Alliance
BBB Wise Giving Alliance (BBB’s Give.org) is a standards-based charity evaluator that seeks to verify the trustworthiness of publicly-soliciting charities by completing rigorous evaluations based on 20 BBB Standards for Charity Accountability. BBB Standards for Charity Accountability address four areas of charity accountability: governance, results reporting, finances, and truthful transparent communications. (from website)

EDUC Y639 | Multilevel Modeling

Education Librarian

Investigating the Authority of Data

Guiding Questions

Tools to Research Your Data

Tools to Discover Impact: Selective Scope

Tools to Discover Impact: Broad Scope

Tools to Investigate Organizations or Agencies

Further Reading

Featured Databases

IU Libraries