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Expanding Access to Research Data: Reconciling Risks and Opportunities
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The United States at present has the most extensive array of data collection programs undertaken by federal statistical, research, and administrative agencies in its history. Collectively, these data yield a detailed portrait of population groups and of organizations that affect people’s lives (employers, educators, health care providers, and others). When made available in the form of microdata, particularly linked, longi- tudinal microdata, federal data collections provide an unparalleled re- source for policy analysis and research on important social issues.1 The interest in such data is exemplified by a trend toward studies with great richness and detailed information, such as the proposed national children’s study on environmental and genetic effects on health and de- velopment (see www.nationalchildrensstudy.gov). Yet this very trend has increased the risk of violating the confidential- ity of those who provide the information. Recent innovations in informa- tion technology, such as the widespread availability of data about indi- viduals on the Internet, have also increased that risk. In response, many data collection agencies have reduced the amount of detail in publicly available microdata sets, although they have also worked with research- ers to develop new methods and arrangements for data access that protect confidentiality and respect privacy.
0-309-65340-1
NONE
Management
English
2005
1-133
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