Data Sets

Working with an Existing Data Set

In many areas of the social sciences, one of the most common methods of research is secondary analysis of public use files of data collected from surveys. One of the main sources of such data is the federal government (e.g., Bureau of Labor Statistics), and, increasingly, Federal agencies require that social science researchers make data collected with assistance of Federal funds publicly available. In addition, social science professional organizations and journals are establishing the norm that researchers make data sets used for the production of published scholarly papers accessible in public use data files to encourage scholarly replication of research.

Applicable Federal Regulation 45 CFR 46.101:

(b) Unless otherwise required by Department or Agency heads, research activities in which the only involvement of human subjects will be in one or more of the following categories are exempt from this policy:

(4) Research involving the collection or study of existing data, documents, records, pathological specimens, or diagnostic specimens, if these sources are publicly available or if the information is recorded by the investigator in such a manner that subjects cannot be identified, directly or through identifiers linked to the subjects.

Projects meeting this definition may be designated as "Exempt" by the IRB.