Share Data sponsored by the
National Institute of Justice and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention

Submission Guidelines

NIJ and OJJDP awards involving data collection include a special condition requiring the data to be deposited at NACJD at the conclusion of the project. The following items are required for deposit:

1. Data (de-identified) and documentation (as described in each of the following depositing guidelines):
   • Guidelines for Depositing NIJ and OJJDP Data
   • Guidelines for OJP Analysts, Program Officers, and Contractors
2. Data Archiving Plan approved by NIJ/OJJDP.
3. IRB-approved protocol or determination letter
4. Fully executed Privacy Certificate.
5. Final project report or journal article. Draft versions are acceptable and will not be released with study materials.
6. Completed NIJ and OJJDP Submission Checklist and Inventory. All submitted files should be listed in the inventory.
7. IRB-approved informed consent forms or instructions (if applicable).
8. Data use agreements for data obtained from external sources (if applicable).

NACJD staff conduct the initial review of deposits for completeness within 10 business days from the submission date. Depositors must abide by the guidelines provided or they may need to provide additional data or documentation pursuant to NIJ/OJJDP requirements before the depositor's institution is released from the special condition regarding depositing research data at NACJD. Project materials should be deposited 90 days prior to the award closeout date.

Once NACJD has confirmed that all required materials have been received, the data and documentation will undergo a more thorough review. This review is generally completed within 20 business days, but is dependent upon the size of the deposit review queue. NACJD will contact the depositor with any questions that arise from this review.

Depositing Data

The online deposit form facilitates the secure upload of files via a Web browser (preferably Chrome), enables the depositor to describe the data collection being deposited and establishes the terms and conditions of data transfer. Depositors should create an ICPSR Researcher Passport account to deposit data. Accounts are free and offer several user-friendly features.

Some NIJ projects (e.g., forensic sciences projects) are not required to submit their data to NACJD, according to their NIJ-approved Data Archiving Plan. Instead, use the NIJ Projects Archiving at Other Data Repositories form to submit only study-level information.

Preparing and Submitting NIJ/OJJDP Data for Archiving

Two archiving orientation videos recorded in December 2022, along with downloadable slides in PDF, are now available. We also provide a full demonstration of the ICPSR online deposit system to guide viewers through the steps and features of the system. The deposit process is the same for NIJ and OJJDP data deposits.