Data Services

Open Access - Data that is freely available to view and download online. Government data is frequently open access. Statistics Canada releases open access Public Use Microdata Files (PUMFs) of most surveys and census reports.

Mediated (Library) Access - Data that is accessible only to library users with the assistance of the SANDS staff.

Restricted Access - Data that is only accessible after completing a rigorous application and vetting process. U of R faculty and grad students may apply to access restricted data from Statistics Canada through the Regina Research Data Centre.

Microdata - Information on each individual, household, business, etc. that responds to a survey. Microdata is frequently referred to as "raw data" and often needs to be manipulated with data software such as SPSS or SAS.

Aggregate Data and Tabulations - Summary-level data usually presented in tables. Frequently referred to as statistics.

Time Series Data - Observations of the same variable (e.g. unemployment) made over time, usually at regular intervals such as weekly, monthly, yearly, etc.

Geospatial Data - Information describing both the location of geographic feature and its attributes (non-locational information about a feature), usually stored as coordinates and topology.

Textual Data - Speech and text data, including lexicons and text copora.