that required the Institute of Education Sciences, or IES,

to make the results from peer-reviewed research it funded

freely available.

As part of that initiative, along with related efforts

to make federal government more transparent,

IES is working to make data from its studies publicly available.

IES believes that data sharing

is an important part of the scientific process.

It provides opportunities for other researchers

to review, confirm, or challenge study findings,

and can also enhance scientific inquiry

through other analytic activities.

IES's Policy Regarding Public Access to Research

ensures that data collected

by IES-funded grantees and contractors

are available for use by other researchers.

The policy also documents and supports research findings,

and encourages transparency.

As of October 1, 2015, this policy requires

that some IES-funded grantees

and all contractors who are performing causal inference studies

provide access to their final research data

in a timely fashion,

but no later than when study findings are published

in a peer-reviewed publication.

Complete details about which grants are covered by this policy

are available online at http://ies.ed.gov/funding/datasharing_policy.asp.

For most studies, an electronic file will constitute the final research data.

These data must be available for at least 10 years

and include both raw data and derived variables,

fully described in accompanying documentation.

Final research data are not summary statistics or tables.

Nor do they include laboratory notebooks,

preliminary analyses, drafts of scientific papers,

plans for future research, peer-reviewed reports,

or communications with colleagues.

Rather, they are factual information

on which summary statistics and tables are based.

All IES-funded contractors performing causal inference studies

and grantees covered by the IES Policy

must develop a Data Management Plan

that includes the method for sharing data;

a description of the types of data that will be shared;

and documentation that helps people find, understand,

and responsibly use the data.

The Data Management Plan must also include steps

for protecting the rights and privacy of human subjects

at all times.

While not an exhaustive list, those steps should include

obtaining participant consent before data collection,

describing the process for ensuring that shared data

do not include identifiers

of individuals participating in the research,

and protecting other elements

that could lead to deductive disclosure

of individual study participants.

The Data Management Plan must address collecting and sharing

both primary and secondary data.

This includes the analytical files created from secondary data.

It is crucial for researchers to consider data sharing requirements

when recruiting schools and organizations

to participate in research studies.

In circumstances where secondary data cannot be shared,

the Data Management Plan should include

a compelling rationale that fully explains

how all possible approaches to data sharing

have been explored and are not feasible.

There are different methods

for providing access to final datasets.

Data and documentation may be added

to an existing data repository,

or made available through websites at universities,

state education agencies, and school districts.

IES encourages researchers to upload their data

to a publicly accessible repository

and provide the data in several electronic file formats.

At least one of the formats must be non-proprietary

in order to provide broad access

for researchers using a variety of analytic software.

Complete details of the policy,

along with links to an Implementation Guide and FAQs,

are available online at http://ies.ed.gov/funding/datasharing_policy.asp.