## Discover and Initiate

In this initial stage of research, it is common to explore your ideas and look at what data is relevant to your research question. This may include such tasks as evaluating existing datasets, discovering relevant literature, and formulating ideas.

Reusing data is a great way to build upon existing research and contribute to a sustainable research landscape. Improvements to data sharing infrastructure and Open Science practices have led to an increase in accessible and reusable datasets. Before you jump into creating your own dataset, it is important to check whether a suitable dataset already exists. To do so, there are several useful data repositories which can help your search.

- Popular Free and Licensed Databases: LibSearch Advanced.
- The literature: Data Journals.
- Scientific data repositories: DataverseNL, DANS, 4TU.Research Data, B2SHARE, Zenodo, Re3data.
  - VU Amsterdam has its own research portal, PURE, where researchers register their datasets.
- Data search engines: DataCite, Google DataSet Search.
- Data portals of (governmental) organisations: Organisations that regularly collect (statistical) data sometimes offer these data through their own portal. An example is Eurostat, which collects and disseminates statistics at the European level, by country and by theme.
- Some of these websites have been linked in the Finding data LibGuide.

Once an appropriate dataset has been identified, it is important to evaluate if the dataset is suitable for reuse. This will consist of checking: the terms and conditions of access and use (license), evaluating possible ways to access and use the data, associated costs and time commitments, and the format of the data and metadata.

Searching through available datasets is a valuable step in the research process. Even if you fail in finding a suitable dataset, the process will give you a wider view on a topic and help you identify gaps in the current research.