ICPSR Access Policy Framework

Version 1 -- June 28, 2010

Prepared by ICPSR Dissemination Committee -- Nathan Adams; Robbin Gonzalez; Felicia LeClere; Kaye Marz; Mary Morris; Brent Phillips; Matthew Richardson; Martha Sayre; Karen Sullivan; Mary Vardigan (Chair)

1. Overview

This policy focuses on ICPSR's mission in providing access to data for social science research and instruction. The policy describes ICPSR's mandate in this area, the objectives and scope of the endeavor, the guiding principles, and related risks and challenges. The appendices provide additional information on access rules, roles and responsibilities, and related links.

2. Purpose

Providing access to digital resources for purposes of scientific inquiry is at the heart of the organization's mission:

ICPSR provides leadership and training in data access, curation, and methods of analysis for a diverse and expanding social science research community.

Access is also a critical component of the Strategic Plan, most notably in Direction I, which emphasizes ICPSR's leadership role. Stated objectives of this strategic direction include:

• Create, model, and promote policies, procedures, and necessary technologies to enable access to social science research while protecting the rights of research participants
• Extend access to data internationally in partnership with others

The notion of access to data and what access means has changed as ICPSR has evolved and matured. When the organization was established in 1962 with the express goal of sharing and providing access to quantitative social science data, most ICPSR data users were Consortium members. Over the decades, grant and contract sponsors have capitalized on the infrastructure of ICPSR to provide access to additional resources through topically-themed archives, and now a substantial amount of data is made available freely to anyone.

In addition to the member-nonmember dimension to access, ICPSR deals with access levels along a continuum from public-use to confidential data, which is another important distinction to be addressed. It is also the case that the stakeholders for data access are many and varied: researchers, policymakers, practitioners, instructors, students, and sponsoring agencies and foundations all use or support the use of ICPSR resources. For these reasons, it is essential that ICPSR establish a clear and transparent access policy to support its data access and dissemination activities.

This policy is intended to coordinate with ICPSR's policies covering digital preservation, data acquisition, and deposit. It also serves as a component of the organization's response to assessing compliance with the Trustworthy Repositories Audit and Certification (TRAC) guidelines.

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3. Mandate

ISR and the University of Michigan

ICPSR is a unit of the Institute for Social Research (ISR) at the University of Michigan. It operates within ISR under the terms of a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) that defines ICPSR's relationship with ISR and the University of Michigan. ICPSR's mission to provide access to data for research and instruction is in keeping with the scholarly and educational missions of both ISR and the University of Michigan.

ICPSR Constitution

As a membership-based consortium, ICPSR has a Constitution and a set of Bylaws that describe its organizational identity, membership and governance structure, stakeholders, and organizational procedures. The Constitution lays out ICPSR's mandate to provide access to data resources:

Article II. Purposes
The purposes of the ICPSR are to promote and facilitate research and instruction in the social sciences and related areas, by acquiring, developing, archiving, and disseminating data and documentation for instruction and research; conducting related instructional programs; conducting such other activities as may be authorized in accord with the Bylaws; and obtaining the resources necessary to accomplish these purposes.

Sponsors

ICPSR enters into agreements with government agencies, foundations, and other funders to distribute data on behalf of the sponsoring entities. Thus, contractual obligations to sponsors provide another aspect of ICPSR's mandate to provide access to data resources.

National Laws

Also relevant to ICPSR's access policy are national laws, statutes, and codes related to the privacy and protection of research participants. Of particular note is the federal regulation on Protection of Human Subjects (45 CFR 46 [1]). Institutions bear the responsibility for compliance with 45 CFR 46. Every university must file an "assurance of compliance" with the Office for Human Research Protections that includes "a statement of ethical principles to be followed in protecting human subjects of research." University Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) review research to address these issues. Other relevant U.S. laws include the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA); the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA); the Federal Confidentiality Order; and the Confidential Information Protection and Statistical Efficiency Act of 2002 (CIPSEA).

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4. Objectives

ICPSR's commitment to access has the following objectives:

• Support the repository's Designated Community: researchers, students, practitioners, and other users who need to obtain access to the ICPSR archive of social science data
• Ensure uninterrupted access to valuable data resources over time through technology changes
• Provide access to digital holdings in a manner consistent with the protection of the privacy of survey participants
• Support the objectives of sponsoring agencies that contract with ICPSR to make their data resources available to a wide audience

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5. Scope

This policy covers access to the entirety of the ICPSR holdings and other products by the ICPSR Designated Community -- social science researchers, graduate students, undergraduates, policymakers, and practitioners, as well as newer categories of users such as journalists.

6. Access Levels

In keeping with the objectives above and its commitment to enduring access, ICPSR's repository commits to offering various levels of access to data and data-related resources, consistent with deposit agreements for stored objects. Further, the repository commits to acquire public-use data whenever possible and when feasible may take the initiative to create public-use files from restricted-use collections to enable some degree of public access. When this is not possible, the repository selects the least restrictive option for access, recognizing that the protection of human subjects is paramount. The ICPSR Authentication and Authorization Rules (PDF) document provides additional detail on access rules and levels as well as authentication and authorization.

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7. Operating Principles

ICPSR is guided by the following principles in delivering access to its digital content:

• To provide access to data and other resources in as open a manner as possible without compromising the privacy of survey participants. This goal is made explicit in Direction 1 of the ICPSR Strategic Plan.
• To decrease barriers to access through: (1) providing multiple access options in terms of technical formats and access mechanisms for restricted data; (2) continuing innovation with respect to user experience on the ICPSR Web sites.
• To use existing community-oriented open access licenses such as Creative Commons whenever possible.
• To comply with community standards for access, most notably the Open Archival Information System (OAIS) Reference Model (ISO 14721:2003).
• To meet the needs of the Designated Community with respect to the topical coverage of the digital content delivered.
• To use a standards-based approach in terms of data and documentation format so as to promote interoperability and long-term preservation. For example, ICPSR currently uses MARC record and Data Documentation Initiative (DDI) formats for its metadata records.

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8. Roles and Responsibilities

Several ICPSR staff members and others in the social science research community play important roles in access. The Access Roles and Responsibilities document outlines the responsible groups and their roles.

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9. Challenges and Risks

Like other digital repositories, ICPSR faces risks and challenges in disseminating data in the age of the Internet. Maintaining a revenue stream sufficient to support long-term access in a competitive world, meeting the changing research needs of the community, and staying abreast of technology are key challenges. Providing access in as open a manner as possible while adhering to necessary constraints on access is another ongoing challenge.

Funding the Access Mission

ICPSR maintains a diversified revenue stream with funding from both member dues and grants and contracts, and this funding model has proven to be a successful and sustainable one over the five decades that ICPSR has been in existence. Nevertheless, this model is not without its challenges. Member dues revenue tends to be stable but does not increase significantly from year to year. Revenue from grants and contracts can fluctuate, and maintaining this funding stream requires diligence in identifying new revenue sources. It is an ongoing challenge to ensure reliable funding to support access to a growing archive of data.

Barriers to Access

While many current initiatives call for free access to data with no restrictions on use or distribution, a substantial portion of ICPSR's data has some access constraints. The organization has determined that there are important reasons why ICPSR must actively control access to its data, even if these controls appear to be barriers to access. These reasons relate to ICPSR's commitment to ethical social science norms and to the funding required for ICPSR to pursue its mission into the future, as discussed above.

Competitive Environment

Another risk that ICPSR faces is the ubiquity of free data on the Internet, which in theory could limit the use of ICPSR data and affect the viability of the organization. There are vast stores of data on the Internet available free of charge to any user. To the extent that users find that such data satisfy their research and instructional needs, ICPSR's access mission may be called into question. While the organization has not faced a membership drop in response to such free data (in fact, membership has grown substantially in the last decade), this is a potential threat that needs to be monitored.

Content Needs of Designated Community

ICPSR's traditional clientele —the social science research community—are now requiring access to data that blur the boundaries between the social sciences and the biological and physical sciences. ICPSR needs to rise to this challenge by anticipating the needs of the community for these more complex data collections, acquiring them, and providing them in formats and systems that expedite their use. This may mean requiring new skill sets for staff and widening ICPSR's perspective on data relevant to the field.

Technological Change

It goes without saying that the rapid pace of change in technology in the digital environment is a challenge for any repository providing access to digital assets. ICPSR monitors and implements new technologies for data capture, storage, analysis, and visualization to ensure that ICPSR stays relevant and agile enough to continue to meet the needs of its users.

10. Audit and Self-Assessment

ICPSR commits to periodic self-assessments against established audit and certification program standards in order to evaluate, measure, and adjust its procedures, approaches, and practices with respect to access.

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11. Policy Administration

This policy was approved on June 28, 2010, by the ICPSR Directors Group after review by the ICPSR Council. ICPSR commits to a periodic review of this access policy by the Dissemination Committee. Recommended changes, when rising to the level of major revisions, will be brought to the Directors Group for approval and to Council for their information. Each new version of the policy published on the Internet will carry a version number and a date stamp.