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Lesson 3 of 16
Dataset Search Quickstart Guide
Data Journalism
Permissions: Source Google Data.
Public Data Explorer: Access a world of data.
Google Trends: Understanding the data.
Google Data GIF Maker
Google Sheets: Visualizing data
Visualizing Data: Flourish templates.
Data Source: Global Forest Watch.
Google Sheets: Scraping data from the internet
Google Sheets: Cleaning data
Data Studio: Make interactive data visualizations
Visualizing Data: Introduction to Tilegrams.
Visualizing Data: Advanced Tilegrams.
Google Trends: Improving your search results.
check_box_outline_blank Data Journalism: Take the Quiz
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Dataset Search Quickstart Guide

Dataset Search Quickstart Guide

Search across millions of datasets on the web

Dataset Search Quickstart Guide

Find datasets to support your research or story

Find datasets to 1/9

Let’s say you want to find datasets on a particular topic. 

Visit datasetsearch.research.google.com.

If you’d like to use the site in a language other than English, click on the icon in the bottom left corner to select your language.

Then, enter the topic into the search bar.

Find datasets to 1/9

Explore your results

Explore Your Results 1

Take a quick look at the number of results. Click each entry to view details about the dataset. 

Read the description to see if the dataset will be appropriate for your use case. 

Explore Your Results 1

Refine your search query

Refine your search query

If your query is too broad, you can use search engine operators like site: and - to further tailor your search.

global temperatures site:noaa.gov

This will restrict your results just the noaa.gov domain.

global temperatures -site:noaa.gov

This will remove all results from the noaa.gov domain.

You can also modify your search with additional terms to help narrow down results.

global ocean temperatures

Refine your search query

Filter your search results

Filter Your Search Results - by download format 1

You can also apply any of the following filters to your results.

Last Updated - Chose from datasets updated in the past month, year, or three years

Download Format - Chose among table, text, image, or other download formats

  • Alternatively, you can also add specific file formats to your search (e.g., global temperatures csv)

Usage Rights - Filter based on whether datasets allow commercial or noncommercial use

Topic - Filter by high-level disciplines such as social sciences or life sciences

Free - Toggle to enable datasets that are free to use

You can select multiple values for each filter and also apply multiple filters. These filters are based on values from the data providers.

Filter Your Search Results - by download format 1

Save your datasets

Save your datasets

Save datasets that you’d like to come back to by pressing the save button in the upper right corner.

View all your saved datasets by selecting the Saved datasets button.

Save your datasets

Follow the link to the external site

Follow the link the external site

After reading the description and deciding that the dataset is useful, click on the blue button to navigate to the external site.

There may be multiple blue buttons if the dataset is hosted in multiple places. Use your best judgement on the reliability of the link.

Follow the link the external site

Explore and download the data to begin your analysis

image1_copy_BsJ3LJ3.png

Once you are on the external site, look for options to explore or download the dataset. 

image1_copy_BsJ3LJ3.png

Cite a dataset

Cite your dataset

If you would like to cite a dataset, click on the citation button to automatically generate a citation for you to copy.

Cite your dataset

Share your results with others

Share you result with others

Click on the share button to share your dataset search results with other people.

Share you result with others
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