How can I find government data?

by Karen Kleiss

David Donald of the Centre for Public Integrity and Ron Nixon of the New York Times offer the following five tips for finding government data:

• Ask for a data retention schedule. It will show what the government is required to keep.

• Pick up blank forms. The information is almost certainly being entered into a database.

• Refer to footnotes in government reports. They often cite the data source for numbers in the report.

• Meet the tech folks and data entry clerks. They know what data exists and how it is maintained.

• Put in FOI request to see what data other people have requested.

Investigative Reporters and Editors Annual Conference, June 2010
Session: Data for investigations locally and around the world
Presenters: Ron Nixon, New York Times and David Donald, Centre for Public Integrity