Decision Guide: Developing a Research Request Process for Integrated Data Systems

Organization

Data Integration Support Center

Description

This guide was created to help state data leaders navigate the practical pathways to secure, transparent, and effective researcher access. When developing a research request process, operators must make several foundational decisions.

 

Summary

The Decision Guide walks you through eight key decision points to help you design a process that fits your specific context, legal requirements, and organizational goals while promoting transparency and accessibility. A companion document, the “Decision Guide Worksheet,” provides a spreadsheet to record your actions.

A related resource, “Creating a Path to Answers: How State Data Leaders Can Empower Researchers,” provides five best practices aimed at improving researcher access to data. The Data Quality Campaign and the Data Integration Support Center at WestEd worked with state data leaders to identify these best practices for enhancing researcher access to de-identified individual-level statewide longitudinal data system data.