Research Data

	Research data generated by the research study.

Research data is defined by the National Institutes of Health as recorded factual material commonly accepted in the scientific community as necessary to validate research findings. Research data includes any numerical, descriptive or visual information on any type of file as generated by the research study and may be publicly available or restricted.

Assessment

Documentation by research study investigators of research data generated is recommended for tracking of research output.

Some research investigators opt to make their research data publicly available while others are required to share research data as a condition of a grant award or journal policy. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Data Sharing Policy requires that as of 2003, any NIH application seeking $500,000 or more in direct costs in a single year is expected to include a plan for data sharing or state why data sharing is not possible. The Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Policy on Sharing Publication-Related Materials, Data and Software stipulates that upon publication of their work, investigators are expected to make materials, data and databases, and software integral to their publication freely available for research use by other scientists and to handle requests expeditiously. PLoS journals require that data integral to a manuscript be publicly available without restriction, provided that appropriate attribution is given and that the data can be shared.

Research data can be housed on research laboratory websites; publicly available repositories such as the Database of Genotypes and Phenotypes (dbGaP) or the Gene Expression Omnibus Datasets; journal websites, or other repositories. The research data (stored as SAS datasets) generated by the Ocular Hypertension Treatment Study (OHTS) are housed on institutional servers and will be made public after the publications from the main study are completed.

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Last updated: May 4, 2009