Every February, International Love Data Week invites researchers, librarians, students, and data professionals to reflect on the role data plays in our work and our world. The 2026 theme, “Where’s the Data?”, is deceptively simple. At first glance, it seems like a logistical question: Where is the file stored? Which platform hosts it? Who has access? But in practice, the question opens up a much broader conversation about visibility, power, infrastructure, and responsibility across the data lifecycle.

In an era defined by unprecedented data production, asking where data is forces us to confront not only its physical or digital location, but also the systems that shape how data is created, shared, preserved, and sometimes lost.

Beyond the Folder: Data’s Many Locations

Traditionally, “where's the data?” might have referred to a server, a filing cabinet, or a hard drive. Today, data exists in far more fragmented and distributed ways. It may reside in institutional repositories, commercial cloud services, personal laptops, external drives, email attachments, proprietary platforms, or behind paywalls. Increasingly, data is also embedded in tools and interfaces which are accessible through APIs, dashboards, or platforms rather than as discrete, downloadable files.

This dispersal has clear benefits. Cloud storage and collaborative platforms make data easier to share and reuse. Large-scale infrastructures enable computational analysis at scales previously unimaginable. At the same time, distributed data raises serious questions about sustainability, interoperability, and long-term access. When data lives “everywhere,” it can also feel like it lives nowhere, especially once projects end, staff leave, or subscriptions lapse.

Invisible Data and Data Gaps

The theme also invites us to think about data that is missing, hidden, or excluded. Not all data is equally visible or valued. Entire communities, regions, and experiences remain underrepresented in datasets, while others are over-collected and over-scrutinized. These absences are not accidental; they reflect historical inequalities, funding priorities, political interests, and methodological choices.

Asking “where's the data?” becomes a way to ask: Whose data exists? Whose does not? And why? In fields ranging from public health to urban planning, gaps in data can translate into gaps in services, representation, and policy responses. At the same time, the absence of data may be intentional or necessary, particularly where data collection poses risks to privacy, safety, or autonomy.

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Ownership, Control, and Power

Location is never neutral. Where data is stored often determines who controls it, who can access it, and under what conditions. Commercial platforms may host vast quantities of research data, but they operate under business models that do not always align with open scholarship or long-term preservation. Data hosted on servers located in specific countries may be subject to national laws governing surveillance, privacy, or intellectual property.

For researchers and institutions, these realities raise important ethical and practical questions. Choosing where to deposit data is also a choice about governance and stewardship. Institutional and disciplinary repositories play a critical role here, offering not just storage but also metadata standards, persistent identifiers, and preservation planning that help ensure data remains findable and usable over time.

Visit UTL’s Research Data Management Guide to learn how to control the future of your research data.

The Role of Documentation and Context

Even when data can be located, it is not always understandable. A dataset without documentation is effectively lost, no matter where it resides. File names, variable labels, codebooks, README files, and methodological notes are essential for making data meaningful beyond its original context.
From this perspective, “where is the data?” is inseparable from “what does this data mean?” and “how was it created?” Data that exists only as an unclear spreadsheet or undocumented database may technically be present, but functionally inaccessible. Love Data Week provides an opportunity to emphasize not only data storage, but also data literacy and documentation as core components of responsible research practice.

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Preservation in a Rapidly Changing Landscape

Digital data is fragile. File formats become obsolete, storage media degrade, and platforms shut down. Preservation is an active, ongoing process. It is not a one-time decision at the end of a project. Asking where data is today must also involve asking where it will be in five, ten, or twenty years.

Libraries, archives, and data centres play a crucial role in this work, advocating for preservation-aware practices such as format migration, redundant storage, and clear licensing. At the same time, individual researchers and research teams are increasingly expected to engage with these questions through data management plans and funder requirements. Love Data Week offers a moment to connect these institutional and individual responsibilities.

Start your research journey answering these questions: Data Management Plan (DMP) - Question Guide.

Teaching, Learning, and Data Discovery

For students and early-career researchers, “where's the data?” is often a starting point for learning how knowledge is produced. Finding relevant datasets can be challenging, particularly across disciplines with different norms and infrastructures. Teaching data discovery skills (how to search repositories, evaluate data sources, and understand reuse conditions) is an essential part of data education.

This theme also highlights the role of librarians and data specialists as guides in an increasingly complex data ecosystem. Helping users navigate not just where data is, but how to access it responsibly and ethically, is central to modern research support.

Contact the Map & Data Library to get help navigate where data is!

Love Data Week as a Call to Reflection

Finally, the question “where's the data?” is less about geography than about relationships. It asks us to reflect on how we care for data, how we share it, and how we acknowledge its limitations. It reminds us that data does not exist independently of social, technical, and political systems.

As we celebrate Love Data Week 2026, this theme encourages us to look critically at our own practices: Where do we store our data? Who can find it? Who cannot? What stories does it tell, and which ones does it leave out? By engaging with these questions, we move closer to a more transparent, ethical, and sustainable data future.

Happy Love Data Week!

Where’s the Data? Reflections for Love Data Week 2026