Sharing Research Data (1985) / Chapter Skim
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Professional Codes and Guidelines in Data Sharing
Professional Codes and Guidelines in Data Sharing
Pages 199-225
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From page 199... ...
Cordray INTRODUCTION This paper reviews available information about professional codes and guidelines Hat are pertinent to data sharing. Our working definition of codes here includes statements of principle, conduct, or rule that bear on the rights and responsibilities of the parties involved in data shanng.
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Though they have no legal standing, they do serve as a framework for international agreements and codes of good practice. The Bellagio principles endorse the idea of provision of government data to individual researchers or research institutions for legitimate research purposes.
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So, for example, the principles state that individuals should have a right of access to their records in personal data recorLkeeping systems and right of correction and that there should be explicit limits on method of collection, use, and external disclosure of records. Personal implications of transnational data flows are considered in recommendations that privacy law or policy be created and enforced and that
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"Statement Concerning We Protection of Privacy and the Use of Personal Data for Research" contains six basic principles dealing with pnvacy. The statement itself was drawn up partly in reaction to OECD and Council of Europe directives that emphasized restrictions on data access in Me interests of institutional and individual privacy.
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study, supported by the Ford Foundation, examined five countries: Britain, the United States, Canada, Germany, and Sweden. It covered the legal framework and theory underlying privacy law for each country, paying special attention to legal restrictions on access to government data by social scientists.
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PROFESSIONAL SOCIETIES AND ORGANIZATIONS A variety of professional organizations and societies have issued codes of ethics or professional conduct that address data sharing at least indirectly. This section discusses Me extent to which societies have explicitly acknowledged data shag practices and summarizes the character of standards, guidelines, or codes issued by societies or professional groups.2 American Association for the Advancement of Science Professional Ethics Project In December 1980 Me American Association for Me Advancement of Science (AAAS)
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concern roughly 74 percent of the societies and cover a broad range of disciplines and society characteristics (large and small membership, new and established, etch. While there is some ambiguity as to the number of societies that have adopted ethical rules or codes of conduct, it appears that between 50 and 60 societies have either done so or have issued advisory opinions.
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has independently issued a Graft code of conduct bearing on Me topic of data sharing (also see Ellenberg, 19831; and the American Sociological Association (1982) issued a draft code of ethics to its members.4 The Evaluation Research Society (ERS)
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has proposed an interim set of guidelines on a 3-year Dial basis (see Amstat News, 1981; American Statistician 37~1)
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The American Sociological Association issued a draft code of ethics in 1980 and a revised code in 1981. Its membership voted approval of a final draft in 1983; enforcement procedures are still under review.
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Other statements in the code make it plain that data generated in other countries, as well as in the United States, should be stripped of identifiers and made available for reanalysis. It also appears to be the only code that is explicit about methods for ensuring privacy of respondents (American Sociological Association, 19821: To Me extent possible .
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Specific Data Sharing Professional Standards and Guidelines The preceding description of professional societies focused on general statemeets of ethical conduct. All of them cover professional activities in addition to data sharing.
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The following remarks focus on the nontechnical guidelines pertaining to practices that facilitate data sharing and access to material necessary for understanding the data. As part of the documentation of a machine-readable data file, Robbin's standards ask Mat the following be provided: 1.
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She focuses attention on the role of planning for data use by specifying issues that should be considered by sponsors of research and researchers prior to funding a research effort, including: designation of funds for specialists in file architecture, processing, and documentation; consultation with experts on confidentiality and privacy protection; monitoring and evaluation of the data acquisition, processing, and documentation throughout the course of the study; and development of multiple public-use data files, each of which may be relevant to a particular disciplinary area. A second society with broad interest in acquiring, storing, and distributing numerical data for social science research is the International Federation of Data Organizations (1:FL)
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National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation's statement of grant conditions (1983:6) specifies the following: Unless otherwise provided in the grant letter, data banks and software, produced with the assistance of NSF grants, having utility to others in addition to the grantee shall be made available to users, at no cost to the grantee, by publication or, on request, by duplication or loan for reproduction by others.
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Among Me mechanisms offered to facilitate access are the development of a central statistical office, a federal locator service, and customized user serv~ces. Formal and Informal Agency Policy The National Institute of Education and the evaluation unit of the U.S.
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Of course, any policy has to be monitored to ensure that it meets the needs of those who request data. RegulatioIIs of Operating Agencies Rules and regulations issued by federal operating agencies as a means of implementing legislation are also pertinent to data access and sharing for research purposes.
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He reports few instances in which authors were reluctant to comply with these requests. As indicated earlier, the American Statistical Association Committee on Code of Conduct has proposed an interim code, to be followed for a 3-year trial basis.
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Birch suggested that the development of a system of microfiche supplements came about because publication of raw data in the journals themselves was too expensive. Journals With No Policy on Data Access Of those journal contacted, a few reported not having an explicit policy on data sharing.
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From page 218... ...
But with a few exceptions, procedures for handling violations are not specified. For example, one rule proposed in the Bellagio Principles is that data sharing should be equitable and that provisions should be made for hearing and adjudicating complaints of unfair practice or charges of unfair restrictions on data access.
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Because laws, regulations, public sentiment, and the like change over time, some codes may require modification. The Joint Committee on Educational Evaluation and the Evaluation Research Society, among others, maintain standing committees for review and modification of the guidelines they have issued.
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American Statistical Association, Ad Hoc Committee on Professional Ethics 1983 Ethical guidelines for statistical practice: Report of He ad hoc committee. American Statistician 37:5~0.
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B 1980 AAAS Professional Ethics Project: Professional Ethics Activities in the Scientific and Engineering Societies.
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1983 Comment. American Statistician 37: 1~11.
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U.S. General Accounting Office 1978 Assessing Social Program Impact Evaluations: A Checklist Approach.
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Cordray Exhibit A The Bellagio Principles 1. National statistical offices should provide researchers both inside and outside government with the broadest practicable access to information within the bounds of accepted notions of privacy and legal requirements to preserve confidentiality .
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The methods that have been developed to permit record linkage without violating law or social custom regarding privacy should be used whenever possible. 14 Professional or national organizations should have codes of ethics for their disciplines concerning the utilization of individual data for research and statistical purposes.
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