LibGuides: Interdisciplinary Studies: Research Data Sources

Research Data Sources

The following is a selection of resources and tips for finding data for your capstone research project:

Peer-reviewed Articles

The following are some resources for finding peer-reviewed articles. Check out the Search Strategy section for tips on searching for sources using the Library Search and Google Scholar.

Library Search - Start your search on the library website. Library Search searches most of the library's collection and databases in a single search.
Subject Guides - Access a subject guide related to your topic to learn about relevant journal databases.
Google Scholar - Search for scholarly literature on a variety of disciplines. (Tip: Set up your Google Scholar account to easily check if articles you find are available through the library's databases)

Note: If a journal article or other material is not available through the library, consider an interlibrary loan. The interlibrary loan program allows students, faculty, and staff to request materials from external libraries (usually other colleges and universities).

Grey Literature

The following are some tips and resources for finding grey literature. Take note that grey literature don't generally go through a peer-review process. Always evaluate grey literature sources to ensure that they're credible, accurate, and don't contain any bias.

General Sources
- Canada Commons - This library databases contains government documents and grey literature, primarily on health, government, and public policy
- Organization, association, and government websites - Search the website of key organizations within your research area for reports and other types of grey literature. Check out a library subject guide for some of the known organizations within a discipline
- Google
  - Use "site:" to search within a specific website
  - Use "filetype:" to search for specific types of files such as PDFs
  - For example, the Google search mmwig site:ontario.ca filetype:pdf searches the Government of Ontario website for PDFs that mention MMWIG
  - Check out the Search Strategy section for more Google search tips
- OpenDOAR - A quality-assured, global Directory of Open Access Repositories. It hosts repositories that provide free, open access to academic outputs and resources
- OpenGrey - access to bibliographical references of grey literature produced in Europe
Subject-specific
- ACM Digital Library - Provides research, trade and education information pertaining to computer science and information technology
- Grey Matters - This resource from the Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health is a free online tool for finding health-related grey literature that are not published commercially and which may be inaccessible via bibliographic databases
Theses & Dissertations
- Open Access Theses and Dissertations - Records of graduate-level theses that are freely available online
- PQDT Open (ProQuest Dissertations & Theses) - Read the full text of open access dissertations and theses
- Theses Canada Portal - Provides full-text access to Canadian theses and dissertations
Preprints
- Preprints are academic research articles that have not yet been published in a journal and undergone the peer-review process. They're usually made available by the author as a way to share their research and contribute to the knowledge within the discipline. The following are some examples of preprint sources:
  - Preprints.org - A multidisciplinary preprint repository
  - SSRN - A multidisciplinary preprint repository
  - arXiv.org - An open-access archive for scholarly articles in the fields of physics, mathematics, computer science, statistics, electrical engineering and systems science, and economics
  - MediArXiv - A preprint source for media, film, & communication studies
  - PsyArXiv - A preprint source for psychology
  - SocArXiv - A preprint source for social sciences

Social Media and Websites

The following is a selection of resources related to websites and social media:

Websites
- Wayback Machine - An initiative of the Internet Archive building a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts. Contains 28+ years of web history.
- Government of Canada Web Archive - Provides access to Canadian web content collected and preserved by Library and Archives Canada.
Social Media
- SOMAR - Social Media Archive at ICPSR - Open-access repository for social media research data.
- TweetSets (George Washington University) - Twitter datasets for research and archiving
- DocNow Tweet Catalog - A collectively curated listing of Twitter datasets.

Advertising

The following is a selection of resources for finding advertising:

Advertising / Marketing Subject Guide
Library Databases
- AdForum - Information on ad campaigns (tv, print, interactive, etc.) from around the world.
- The Work from Cannes Lions - Award-winning creative advertising campaigns from leading brands and agencies.
- WARC (World Advertising Research Center) - Articles, case studies, research reports and summaries covering all areas of marketing communications.
Websites and Archives
- Ad*Access - An image database of more than 7,000 U.S. and Canadian ads covering five product categories dated between 1911 -1955.
- AdViews - A digital collection provides access to thousands of historic commercials created for clients or acquired by the D'Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles (DMB&B) advertising agency or its predecessor during the 1950s - 1980s.
- Canadian Advertising Museum - To view ads by decade, click on "The Work".
- Chronicling America - A databases containing newspaper pages published through 1963.
- Creativity: The Best in Advertising, Design and Digital Creativity
- Facebook Ad Library - Search all the ads currently running across Meta technologies.

Newspapers and Magazines

The following is a selection of resources for finding news and magazine articles:

Library Newspaper Search
Library Databases
- Canadian Business & Current Affairs Database - Provides access to a broad range of Canadian magazines, newspapers, and journals.
- Canadian Newsstream - Provides access to 700 Canadian newspapers from Canada's leading publishers, including the Globe and Mail and the Toronto Star.
- Gale OneFile News - A database of over 2500 full-text newspapers, newswire services, and news program transcripts from Canada, U.S. and abroad.
- Nexis Uni - A large multi-tiered database of thousands of sources including newspapers, journals, wire services, newsletters, company reports and SEC filings, case law, government documents, transcripts of broadcasts, and selected reference works.
Newspaper Archives
- Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers (Library of Congress)
- Google News Archive Search
- Library and Archives Canada: Historical Newspaper Resources
- Ontario Community Newspapers - Community and historical newspapers of Ontario with content going back to the 1800s.

Open Data and Statistics

The following is a selection of resources for finding openly available datasets and statistics:

Data and Statistics Subject Guide
Open Datasets
- Free Public Data Sets For Analysis (Tableau) - A list of publicly available datasets on a variety of disciplines.
- Google Dataset Search
- Ontario Data Catalogue (Government of Ontario)
- Open Data Portal Catalogue (Government of Canada)
Statistics
- Statista - Library database with statistical data and analysis of business, industry, product brands, market share, media, and social scientific topics, obtained from both private and public sector sources, and covering all regions of the world.
- Statistics Canada

Interdisciplinary Studies