Data

Our definition of Data: 

Data refers to a group of raw facts, statistics, observations, and/or information that is obtained from completed surveys, questionnaires, or pools. Before research conclusions can be made, data processing is necessary.

Even before the raw data is collected, a good study begins with a careful design of the process to collect the data. This could be in the form of designing a questionnaire to administer a survey and defining a process for selecting the survey targets. In other cases it might mean designing an experiment, which involves defining the independent parameters, choosing how they will be controlled and varied, and defining the observations of interest and how they will be measured. In all cases, one critical question that must be addressed is how many data points (survey respondents or experimental trials) are needed. In a few situations an entire population may be measured, but usually only a sample can be measured because of resource constraints. In a well-designed study, appropriate statistical techniques are used to plan the collection of relevant data so that they can be used to form meaningful conclusions.

The next step is the collection of the data. Surveys are administered, or an experiment is conducted, all under conditions that are carefully controlled so that they can be replicated by other researchers if desired. At the end of this stage, the researchers have a collection of raw data -- questionnaire answers or measurements from the experiment.

If the raw data is on paper, it is usually entered into a computer database so that it can be processed more readily. The research team uses computer software to process the data, again carefully following the design of the study. Typical calculations of interest include averages (mean or median), spreads (standard deviation or variance), maximums, and minimums. Usually, data points are aggregated into various groupings so that different groups can be compared with each other.

After the computerized processing, the research team examines the processed data and interprets the statistical results, translating them into meaningful conclusions that relate back to the real world where the data was originally collected. In the final step, the team may write a paper for publication or just use the results to guide them in their operational efforts.