Hi,

Just wondering whether to use "data" as a singular or plural in a journal article (i.e. data was collected or data were collected)....would appreciate input on this!

Thanks!

'were'.

If writing more informally (e.g. in a newspaper article) I'd use 'was'. But for a journal, 'were'.

Thanks for your response, Hazyjane :-)

hmm, I'd use 'was', I know that's maybe not grammatically correct but I'd see "data were collected" as suggesting more than one set of data was collected IYSWIM?

uh-oh, now I am confused :-(. Hmm, well, I'll go with the majority, so let's see what the others respond with...

We were always taught 'were' at uni, as data is a plural of datum, they made a really big fuss about it! But then that was sciences might be different for other departments.

Always 'these data were collected', never 'this data was collected'.

I think it is regarded as a collective singular, so 'was' is my answer! :$

Having initially resisted using the plural as it sounded hyper-correct, I've now succumbed. In academic writing it really should be the data are/were, not the data is/was.

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Ok, well I personally prefer using data as singular, but as some of you have pointed out that plural is better for academic writing, then plural it is! Thanks for the input, everyone :-). I appreciate it.

A relevant Article from the economist: http://www4.economist.com/blogs/johnson/2011/04/change

I personally vote for "were".

I have had a similar discussion over this issue recently. Historically, data is the plural of datum and was expressed as 'data were collected'. However, due to hyper-correctness this has evolved over time to data being considered and expressed as a singular, i.e. 'data was collected'. The oxford dictionary suggests either use, for historical or recent correctness. I found an article a while ago in the guardian who concluded the latter use of data as a singular, so this is what I have done in my thesis. As long as you can justify your expression and, most importantly, use that consistency throughout, either can work.

Thanks Reacted and Dunni for your input - appreciate it :-)