International Love Data Week happens with a new theme every year. This year is ‘Where’s the Data?’ — a way to get people thinking about data’s journey from collection through storage and preservation. In collaboration with ASU Library Researcher Support and Knowledge Enterprise, we were honored to sit down with Data (for the Star Trek Next Generation fans, not that Data) for an interview on where they’ve been and where they’re going.
Interview with Data
Q: Hello, and thank you for sitting down with us for Love Data Week 2026 to learn more about your travels!
Data: My pleasure. I’m really excited to talk about how I’m basically everywhere all the time.
Q: You really can be very elusive but as you say, everywhere too! Where do you come from? What are your origins?
Data: These days, I can be found everywhere. I come in a variety of forms and can be found as tabular data made from surveys, audio or video recordings of oral histories, data from archaeological investigations, and geospatial data, just to name a few.
Q: What kinds of sources or places do you also call home?
Data: I have so many homes! While it is common to find me on external storage drives or the cloud, I am most secure and easily found in repositories that can be subject specific like ICPSR or institution-based like the ASU Research Data Repository. While some of my homes are publicly available like the American Community Survey, also known as Census Data, it’s important to know that I cannot always be publicly available. Apart from securing personally identifiable information (PII), there is also an important concept of Indigenous Data Sovereignty, where Indigenous peoples have the right to govern the collection, ownership, and use of data.
Q: You are in such demand! And how do we learn how to work with you?
Data: It can be overwhelming how many people want to work with me. Like being chased by the data paparazzi! ASU has several policies about working with me. Depending on how much personal and health information I have, researchers would need to work with me in a secure environment. The good news is that most of these places also double as storage too! There is a great tool at ASU available to map out where I can live. I have very specific needs.
Q: Data, you are so valuable, and need to be preserved after a project. We don’t ever want to lose you. What do you recommend and how can we ensure we can always find you later?
Data: Well, that is very kind. Yes, I am very valuable, if I do say so myself. There are policies that can guide researchers, especially from federal funding agencies, that require researchers to create a Data Management and Sharing Plan (DMSP) before the start of a project to outline where and how I will be preserved, such as in a repository. A free, useful tool to create a DMSP is the DMP Tool. You can draft a plan, request feedback directly from ASU data management experts, and export your completed plan. As for repositories, lucky for ASU, there is the ASU Research Data Repository maintained by the ASU Library that offers ASU researchers the ability to share, preserve, and publish their research data.
Q: Thank you, Data for such a great interview! You are such a treasure trove of knowledge. Any parting words of advice for your fans?
Data: Even though I’m technically everywhere, no one does well when I wander off. Keep track of me, treat me with respect, and the results will be marvelous. Lost data breaks hearts — and reproducibility!
- Written by Kathryn Claypool, Senior Research Scientist, Health Observatory