Use cases · Researchers · Worked scenario
Finding data to reuse
This fictitious use case highlights ways researchers can leverage generalist repositories to find datasets for reuse.
Dataset Details
Dataset title: Attitudes in Pakistan towards COVID-19 infection and prevention
Investigators and affiliations: Inaya Tauqir
Data type: Surveys and interviews
Use case date: February 20, 2023
Use case contact: Julian Gautier, support@dataverse.harvard.edu
Background
Inaya Tauqir is studying what people living in Pakistan and surrounding countries think about COVID-19 infection and prevention.
While thinking about how to conduct the research, she searches online for what others have published about this topic. One of the articles she finds was published in F1000 Research.
Use case
The article's data availability statement points to a dataset in the Harvard Dataverse Repository, but she can't access the data because the files are restricted and the owners aren't replying to her emails. So she looks for other data in the repository, typing covid AND attitudes in the search box and scanning the first page of results.
Many of the datasets look helpful, but there are over 8 pages of results. To manage the search, Inaya sorts the results by date to start with the most recently published data. And to remove data that might be inaccessible, she uses the "Access" filter to see only datasets with "Public" files.
As she reviews the datasets' descriptions and files, she saves the citation files of several datasets into her EndNote account so she can look at the datasets more closely later and easily cite the datasets she uses.
GREI Use Cases are supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Office of Data Science Strategy / Office of the NIH Director pursuant to OTA-21-009, "Generalist Repository Ecosystem Initiative (GREI)".
Header image: NIH Image Gallery. GDF10 protein forms new brain cell connections (https://www.flickr.com/photos/nihgov/22798807131/). Courtesy of S. Thomas Carmichael, MD, PhD, David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California Los Angeles. NIH funding: National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). More information at https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/scientists-identify-main-component-brain-repair-after-stroke