The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. Add to that more than 3,000 tipsheets from our national conferences on how to cover specific beats or do specific stories and you have a resource that no reporter or editor should be without. These stories and tipsheets are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Logged-in members can view the tipsheets free online:
Search results for "databases" ...
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Campaign finance the data science way
The Center for Investigative Reporting and IRE teamed up with the San Francisco data science company Kaggle to help bridge the gap in journalism between hacking, math and substantive expertise. They challenged data scientists to approach a database journalists have looked at a million times over: federal campaign contributions. We'll introduce you to the winner of the competition and discuss the tools the data scientists used and their results.
Tags: hacking; math; data; campaign contributions; campaign finance
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The data-driven story part 3: bulletproofing and presentation
Learn how to "bulletproof" your data by doing integrity checks and learn tips to go beyond basic data checking.
Tags: Databases; sourcing; story visualization
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The data-driven story part 1: conceiving and launching
Start with the data basics: where to get data, how to request it, how to "interview" the data and analyze the information.
Tags: Database; story visualization
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My friend FRED: Using Fed data tools to add context to stories
Federal Reserve Economic Data, or FRED, is the signature database at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Learn from Taylor how to find and use the economic database to add context to economic reporting.
Tags: Database; economic database; FRED
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Analysis Tools at FollowTheMoney.org
Roth Barber highlights the many great tools at FollowTheMoney.org in this tipsheet. There's everything from an independent spending database to "A unique view of the top 10,000 donors to political campaigns at both the state and federal level—information that exists nowhere else."
Tags: campaign spending; donors; tracking the money; L-CAT; contributors
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Database checklist: Key academic research resources — both free and restricted
Wihbey provides useful tips on how to use academic research in your investigations. He includes many databases, both restricted and unrestricted. http://journalistsresource.org/reference/research/database-checklist-key-academic-research-resources-free-restricted/
Tags: academic research; LexisNexis; Google Scholar; Full Text Reports
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Data and Documents
Luther, one of IRE's training directors, provides this Powerpoint presentation on the importance of gathering data and documents, not only for the story you already have but for the story that's not been written yet.
Tags: FOIA; open records; data; documents; databases
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Data Tables: Step-by-step Basic Instructions
Schnaars gives instructions on how to use the jQuery plug-in "Data Tables" to quickly display searchable and sortable data through content management system.
Tags: jquery; data tables; ssi; json; htm; html; data; sorting;
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Data U: The Databases You Need to Cover Higher Ed
Higher Education is a hot button topic that affects everyone. This tipsheet features databases, story ideas, and tips for covering universities.
Tags: Higher Education