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Agriculture and Food Science: Advanced research

Data and Statistics


In addition to the sources in the Data and Statistics Guide above, below is a small selection of data sources. If you have additional questions, contact your librarian.

Comparing Data and Statistics by using ingredients and a recipe.

Imagine you look at a recipe. Data are your ingredients and Statistics are the final product.

Data Type Definition / Example
Observational What you capture in real-time
Experimental

What you produce in your lab classes

Simulation Modeling / Machine-generated
Derived E.g., Text mining, 3D Models
Textual Field / Lab notebooks
Discipline-specific E.g., Viewing stars through a telescope
Instrument-specific E.g., Taking your body temperature

 

Gray Literature

Gray literature is the information created by organizations such as government agencies, professional associations, research institutes, and think tanks that are not published in scholarly journals or books. This includes:

  • Technical papers
  • Government reports
  • White papers
  • Theses & Dissertations 
  • Conference Proceedings
  • Pre-print journal articles

Gray literature is produced by researchers and practitioners in a field and is an important component of a thorough literature review due to its depth and breadth, timeliness, flexibility, and open access.


Content written by Lisa Clarke (Librarian, NOAA Central Library) in the Gray Literature research guide. Current as of 21 Jun 2023.

Contact your librarian

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Anthony Paganelli
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