Reusability of data

As a user of the third party data, you will need to check the practical reusability of the data.

You should:

  1. Ensure third party data is using standards compatible with your needs, including how data is collected, units of collection and data representation and exchange
  2. Check coverage. Does the data actually relate to what you require, e.g. the geography?
  3. Check timeliness. Does it cover the right period, is it up to date?
  4. Check granularity. Does it include enough detail to be used in the ways intended?

Following these checks, you may need to instigate further processing to:

  1. Check the data for, and deal with, any errors
  2. Remove unneeded data
  3. Transform the format or structure of the data
  4. Apply techniques such as anonymisation to minimise harmful impacts
  5. Combine or enrich the data with other data sources

The FAIR data toolbox includes a case study on harmonising data from third party sources as well as a guide on anonymisation.