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Data Literacy

Data literacy is the ability to understand, use, and communicate data

Data Terminology

Research question

  • The question that your study aims to answer.

Hypothesis

  • Statistically relates two or more variables to each other. A hypothesis is part of answering a research question.

Variable

  • Any single measurement.
  • A variable may be a number (ex: age) or a choice of words or phrases (ex: yes/no, strongly disagree, part time vs full time).

Dataset

  • A dataset is a structured collection of data, often but not always arranged in tabular formats consisting of rows and columns such as Excel or .csv files.

Documentation

  • ​​​​​​​Information about what variables are represented in the dataset, particularly about what was asked/measured.

Codebook

  • ​​​​​​​A common form of documentation.
  • Lists variables including possible answers and how those answers are represented in the data (ex: 0 = no; 1 = yes; 2 = maybe).