Research data is the evidence that helps answer research questions. It can take many forms—like documents, digital files, or physical objects—and comes in two main types: numbers (quantitative) or descriptions (qualitative).
Researchers gather data through methods like experiments, observations, computer modeling, or interviews. Data can also come from existing sources. It might be:
- Primary data: collected directly by the researcher
- Derived data: processed or analyzed from primary data
- Existing data: gathered from other sources
What makes something “research data” is how researchers use it to support their claims. Examples include statistics, images, audio, recordings, interview transcripts, survey results, field notes, interpretations, artworks, archives, found objects, published texts, books, or manuscripts.
The main idea is that research data is any material researchers use as evidence to back up their findings, regardless of what form it takes or where it came from.