In informal writing, datum is considered a collective singular noun. But data is a plural word used in formal writing, such as scientific communication.

A good technical communicator would not write  “the data is” or “this data” in a scientific paper.

It is written as “these data” or “the data are” to be grammatically correct

As you probably guessed, one of the most popular words in the sciences is data. Be certain that your pronouns and verbs agree in number, as in the following sentence:

These data are persuasive. They suggest new grounds for novel discoveries in emotion research.