Policy for Publicly Available Archival and Secondary Data
Research activities in which the only involvement of human subjects will be the use of publicly available archival data fall under the IRB category of Exempt. Typically, if research is conducted using archival data, the researcher must submit an application to the IRB in order to have the research approved as exempt.
However, for the following datasets listed in this document, the IRB has approved in advance that these datasets fall into an Exempt category. Therefore, for these datasets, submission of an Exempt protocol is not necessary. For any data sets not listed below, the Researcher must submit a request, through the Request Document, to include the new data set on the IRB Approved list or submit an IRB protocol.
Thus, research projects involving secondary data set analysis using one or more of the data sources listed below will not require prior IRB approval. The data set must be downloadable directly from the parent website URL by the researcher without any additional licensing required by the source. If any additional authentication by the source is required, the researcher must submit the Request Document to the GSU IRB before research using that database can commence.
1. Public Sources of Data Sets Currently Approved for Use Under this Policy:
a. Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR)
b. U.S. Bureau of Census
c. National Center for Health Statistics
d. National Election Studies
e. Bureau of Labor Statistics
f. Panel of Income Dynamics
2. Researcher Options When Working with a Database Other Than Those Approved and Listed above.
a. Option One: A researcher may complete and the Request Document to register a dataset for approval under this policy.
b. Option Two: A researcher may complete and submit an IRB Application via IRBWise.
3. Investigator Guidelines for Registering a Data Set for Approval Under this Policy:
a. If a data set does not appear above, a researcher may request approval through the IRB. Data sets may qualify for inclusion on GSU’s list of approved data sources if prior approval of the IRB is obtained and the data set falls under b , c, or d below:
b. Public use data sets posted on the Internet that include a responsible statement or other confidentiality agreement for authors to protect human subjects :
c. Research projects that merge more than one data set in such a way that individuals may be identified are not covered by this policy, and require prior IRB approval.
d. Researchers must submit the following information on potentially eligible data sets to the IRB and receive written approval prior to conducting research.
i. Name of data set
ii. URL of the data set or other information on how to obtain the data set
iii. Abstract (one page maximum) describing the content of the data set and its potential use by other researchers. Please include a brief statement as to the lack of identifying information in the public-use version of the dataset.