> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://bcds.gitbook.io/handbook/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://bcds.gitbook.io/handbook/digital-scholarship-methods/data/data-projects/questions.md).

# Getting Started Questions

The following questions are helpful to consider when beginning a data project.

### **Data Acquisition**

* Are you looking for data & statistics with a time period or geography focus?
* Are you looking for a specific data type? e.g., qualitative, qualitative, GIS, multimedia
* Are you collecting your own data for your research? 
* Have you started searching for data sources?
* Do you need support on data management (DMP), preservation, or sharing?

### **Data Manipulation**

* What data format are you using? e.g., Excel, Stata, SPSS 
* What data tasks do you need to conduct?
  * Data cleaning: the process of preparing data for analysis by removing or modifying data that is incorrect, incomplete, irrelevant, duplicated, or improperly formatted.
  * Data merging: the process of combining two or more data sets into a single data set.
  * Aggregation (Summarization): the process of gathering data and presenting it in a summarized format.

### **Data Visualization**

* What format does your data come in? e.g., Excel, text file, JSON, PDF, spatial
* Do you have any preferred visualization tool you want to use?
* Do you need help with choosing the visualization tools?