Organisations, software and further help

Most countries have official statistical societies that often prove to be excellent sources:

  • Statistical Center of Iran (SCI) is responsible for updating statistics on socio-economic factors. The site also includes; tables of statistical projects implemented since March 1998, selected statistical information (Iran Statistical Yearbook), statistical news, links to population information (POPIN), and national and international statistical organisations.
  • Ultimate statistics glossary from online Schools
  • Statlib is a system for distributing statistical software, datasets, and information by electronic mail, FTP and WWW.
So, where do you begin? To find out what may be available on a local, national and international level, you could browse the pages of various subject gateways. For example:
  • Keeping Track: A Guide to Longitudinal Resources is a free, electronic guide to longitudinal data sources. Created by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) in conjunction with the Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER), which acts as the UK Longitudinal Studies Centre (ULSC), it recoreds data sets collected by governmental, academic, private social research, medical and private industrial sources. Users can discover what kinds of longitudinal data are available and retrieve further information about studies of particular interest to their research interests.
  • LTSN Statistics is one component of the LTSN Maths, Stats & OR (Operational Research) Subject Centre co-hosted by the Universities of Birmingham, Glasgow and Nottingham Trent.
  • OFFSTATS is a useful gateway to statistics for countries around the world.
If you feel that you would like more help in finding out about statistical sources and how to retrieve them, why not try one of the free, online tutorials that exist?
  • See the Need some more help? section on this page.
A key issue is obviously the evaluation of the material you find. Who is publishing the figures? Why? When were they compiled? You must consider this carefully when using web-based sources, just as you would for printed materials.
  • See the How can I evaluate the quality of resources? on this page.