Before You Start
Before you start to find China data, two things you need to know:
Time: Are you looking for data about a single point in a period? Do you want ot look at changes during a certain time? Do you need historical information? Or, current information?
Geography: Geographical areas can be defined by political boundaries (nations, provinces, cities) or statistical boundaries (metropolitan statistical areas, block groups, or tracts).
No matter what your topic is, China data is limited by both time frame and geography.
Search Steps
Search Steps
A visual diagram to start the thought process for your statistics search.
When searching for data might be required, ask the following questions:
Search Strategies
Strategy 1. Use Subject Guides as a Finding Aid
If you are not sure who might have produced the data you need, please refer to Subject Guides for deeper research.
XJTLU Librarian have compiled guides that point you directly to the major sources and possible data producers in different topical areas:
Strategy 2. Identify Potential Producers
Please ask yourself: Who might collect or publish this kind of data?
Then visit the organization's websites and see if you're right! Or, search for them as an author in the Library Catalogue (OPAC).
The following are some main types of producers of data:
- Government Agencies
The government collects data to aid in policy decisions and is the largest producer of data overall. For example, Ministry of Land and Resources of the People's Republic of China and many other agencies collect and publish data. To better understand the structure of government agencies refer to National Bureau of Statistics of China. Government statistics are free and publicly available.
- Non-Government Organizations
Many independent non-commercial and nonprofit organizations collect and publish statistics that support their social platform. For example, International Monetary Fund, OECD iLibrary,and many other organizations collect and publish data. Not all statistical publications will be freely available on the web.
- Academic Institutions
Academic research projects funded by public and private foundations create a wealth of data. Many other research projects publish statistics based on their data collection projects. Some statistical publications are available freely online, but others may require access.
Strategy 3. Follow up Statistics Reported in Articles
Look for statistics reported in journal, news, and magazine articles. If they report a source, be sure to follow it up!
By searching periodical indexes, you can determine if anyone has conducted research into your area of inquiry. You may turn up a journal article with statistical tables on your topic, or you may find out that you have chosen such a unique topic that little to no research exists in that area. Maybe you can be flexible with your topic and find a similar substitute.