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Research & Economic Development

Public Use Data Sets

Secondary data analysis of publicly available data sets is a common research method. These data sets are data (or specimens) that are accessible to anyone in the general public without the need for special qualifications, permissions, or privileges. Most public data sets contain data that is not individually identifiable or in a readily identifiable form.

The Tennessee Tech University IRB has determined that studies that only use of the following list of approved public use data sets and archives do not constitute “human subjects research” as defined by 45 CFR 46 and are therefore not subject to IRB review and approval, as long as the following criteria are met:

  • The researcher will not merge the data with any other data that would allow the possibility of identification of any individual.

  • The researcher will not enhance the dataset with information that would allow the possibility of identification of any individual.

  • The dataset does not have restricted or limited data access (ex. requires a password, data use agreement or permission to view).

Data sets that do not meet the above criteria will require prior approval by a subcommittee of the IRB, which can be requested by submitting an Application for Research Involving Human Subjects form, found here.

Investigators who wish to have a specific data set or data archive considered for inclusion onto this list should complete and submit the Public Data Set Nomination form to IRB@tntech.edu. Please note that the requested data set must be pre-existing and publicly available.

LIST OF APPROVED PUBLIC USE DATA SETS AND ARCHIVES

A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - I - J - K - L - M - N - O - P - Q - R - S - T - U - V - W - X - Y - Z

 

Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Registry

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality

  • Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (H-CUP) healthcare databases
  • Medical Expenditure Panel Survey

American College of Surgeons (ACS)

  • National Cancer Database
  • National Trauma Data Bank (NTDB)
  • American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program(ACS-NSQIP) Participant Use Data File
  • National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS-NSQIP) Pediatric Use Data File
  • National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS-NSQIP) Procedure Targeted Participant Use Data File
  • National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS-NSQIP) Geriatric Surgery Research File

American Gut Project

American Medical Association Physician Masterfile

American National Election Studies

Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research

Bureau of Labor Statistics

Public Use data sets only, IRB approval required for restricted and geo-coded/zip code data sets

  • National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97)
  • National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY79)
  • NLSY79 Children and Young Adults
  • National Longitudinal Survey of Young Women and Mature Women (NLSW)
  • National Longitudinal Survey of Young Men and Older Men
  • American Time Use Survey (ATUS)

California Health and Human Services Open Data Portal

All public use files at this site may be used.

NOTE: Restricted data sets at the CA Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development (OSHPD) require IRB review.

California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development

  • Home Health Agency and Hospice Facility Annual Utilization Data

Cancer Genome Atlas

  • Breast Invasive Carcinoma (British Columbia, Nature 2012)
  • Breast Invasive Carcinoma (Broad, Nature 2012)
  • Breast Invasive Carcinoma (Sanger, Nature 2012)
  • Breast Invasive Carcinoma (TCGA, Cell 2015)
  • Breast Invasive Carcinoma (TCGA, Nature 2012

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention including the National Center for Health Statistics

Public data sets including but not limited to the following:

  • Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR)
  • Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (federal level only)
  • Longitudinal Studies of Aging
  • National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS)
  • National Center for Health Statistics
  • Hispanic Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (HHANES)
  • National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (public data only)
  • National Health Interview Survey
  • National Home and Hospice Care Survey
  • National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NHAMCS)
  • National Hospital Care Survey
  • National Immunization Survey
  • National Mortality Followback Survey (NMFA) 1993
  • National Nursing Home Survey
  • National Survey of Children with Special Health Care Needs (public version)
  • National Survey of Children’s Health (public version)
  • National Survey of Family Growth
  • National Vital Statistics System
  • Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System
  • Social Vulnerability Index (SVI)
  • State and Local Area Integrated Telephone Survey (SLAITS)
  • WONDER: Wide-ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research
  • Youth Risk Behavioral Survey Study (YRBSS) (federal level only)

ClinicalTrials.gov

Commonwealth Fund

  • Survey of Older Americans 2004

Consumer Product Safety Commission:

  • Death Certificate Database
  • Injury and Potential Injury Incidents Database
  • In Depth Investigations Database

Crash Injury Research and Engineering Network (CIREN)

Public side only

Cross-National Data Center in Luxembourg

  • Luxembourg Income Study (LIS)

Dartmouth Medical School

  • The Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care

Database of Genomic Variants (DGV)

Data and Specimen Hub (DASH)

The Demographic and Health Surveys Program

Duke University and National Institute on Aging

  • National Long-Term Care Survey

Economic Research Service (ERS), US Department of Agriculture (USDA)

  • Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS)

European University Institute

  • German Socio-Economic Panel Survey (G-SOEP)

Federal Reserve System

  • Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF)

FINRA Investor Education Foundation

  • National FInancial Capability Study

German Socio-Economic Panel Survey

Health and Retirement Study (HRS)-Public Survey Data

Health Resources & Services Administration

  • Area Health Resources Files

Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (H-CUP) healthcare databases

  • The Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS)
  • The Kids’ Inpatient Database (KID)
  • The State Inpatient Databases (SID)
  • The State Ambulatory Surgery Databases (SASD)
  • The State Emergency Department Databases (SEDD)

Healthy Minds Network

Note: Restricted data sets require IRB review

  • Healthy Minds Study 

Health Resources & Services Administration

  • Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program Compass Dashboard

HIV Prevention Trials Network D01: Vaccine Preparedness Study/Uninfected Protocol Cohort – 4 files

HIX Compare Health Exchange Individual Market Data

Immigration and Intergenerational Mobility in Metropolitan Los Angeles (IIMMLA)

Integrated Public Use Microdata Series – International

International Neuroimaging Data Sharing Initiative (INDI)

Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research  (ICPSR)

Kidney Chromophobe (TCGA, Cancer Cell 2014)

Kidney Renal Clear Cell Carcinoma (TCGA Nature 2013)

Kidney Renal Papillary Cell Carcinoma (TCGA, Provisional)

Laboratory of Neuroimaging (LONI) Image Data Archive (IDA)

Lung Adenocarcinoma (Broad, Cell 2012)

Lung Adenocarcinoma (TCGA, Nature 2014)

Luxembourg Income Study Project Archive

Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS)

Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care (MIMIC)

Medicare Hospice Compare Data Set

Provided by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, these data allow you to compare the quality of care provided by Medicare-certified hospice agencies throughout the nation.

Minnesota Population Center, University of Minnesota

  • Integrated Public Use Microdata Series, International

Murray Research Archive, Harvard University

NASA Oak Ridge National Laboratory

  • Arctic-Boreal Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE)
  • Accelerated Canopy Chemistry Program (ACCP)
  • Atmospheric Carbon and Transport - America (ACT-America)
  • Atmospheric Tracer Transport Model Intercomparison Project (TransCom)
  • AfriSAR
  • Airborne Microwave Observatory of Subcanopy and Subsurface (AirMOSS)
  • Atmospheric Tomography Mission (ATom)
  • BigFoot
  • Boreal Ecosystem-Atmosphere Study (BOREAS)
  • Carbon in Arctic Reservoirs Vulnerability Experiment (CARVE)
  • Making Earth System Data Records for Use in Research Environments (MEaSUREs)
  • Model Archive
  • North American Carbon Program (NACP)
  • MODIS Land Products Subsets
  • Net Primary Productivity (NPP) (biomass measurements)
  • Oregon Transect Ecosystem Research Project (OTTER)
  • Prototype Validation Exercise (PROVE)
  • Southern African Regional Science Initiative Project (SAFARI 2000)
  • Superior National Forest
  • Soil Collection
  • Vegetation Collection
  • Vegetation-Ecosystem Modeling and Analysis Project (VEMAP)

National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), U.S. Department of Agriculture

Census of Agriculture and other data collected and distributed by NASS.

National Alliance for Caregiving

All public use files at this site.

National Cancer Institute (NIH)

  • Childhood Cancer Survivor Study (CCSS)
  • Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS)

National Center for Education Statistics

National Collaborative on Childhood Obesity Research

  • Catalogue of Surveillance Systems

National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)

  • NCAA Injury Surveillance Program (ISP) 

National Health and Aging Trends Study

Public Use Files may be used. NSOC & Other Sensitive Files and/or Restricted Files require IRB review.

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development

Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)

  • Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA)

ORNL and U. S. Department of Energy Land Scan Datasets

Perceptual Robotics Lab (PeRL) at the University of Michigan

  • Ford Campus Vision and Lidar Data Set

Pew Research Center

  • Survey of Multiracial Adults

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Data Archive (SAMHDA)

  • National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) Series
  • Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) Series
  • Treatment Episode Data Set - Admissions (TEDS-A) Series
  • Treatment Episode Data Set - Discharges (TEDS-D) Series
  • National Survey of Substance Abuse Treatment Services (N-SSATS) Series
  • National Mental Health Services Survey (N-MHSS), 2010 (ICPSR 34945)
  • National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 2012 (ICPSR 34933)

Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS)

  • OECD Teaching and Learning International Survey

UK Data Service, University of Essex and University of Manchester

  • National Child Development Study

United Nations Statistics Division

  • UNdata

University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)

  • California Health Interview Survey (CHIS)

Public use data files only.

University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Institute for Social Science Research (ISSR)

  • Social Science Data Archives

University of Essex Institute for Social and Economic Research

  • British Household Panel Survey

University of Michigan Institute for Social Research

  • Health and Retirement Study Survey of Consumers (SCA)

University of Michigan National Archive of Computerized Data on Aging

  • Advanced Cognitive Training for Independent Vital Elderly, 1999-2001 (ACTIVE)

Public data only. Apply through IRB to use restricted sets.

University of Minnesota

  • FINBIN

University of Washington National Institute on Aging

  • National Alzheimer’s Coordinating Center

University of Wisconsin Institute on Aging

  • Midlife in the United States (MIDUS)

University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health

  • Neighborhood Atlas

US Agency for International Development

  • Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS)

US Census Bureau

  • Household Pulse Survey
  • National Survey of Children’s Health
  • Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS)

U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services

  • Medicare Provider Cost Report Public Use Files
  • Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey (MCBS)
  • CMS Facts & Figures

US Department of Agriculture

  • Continuing Survey of Food Intakes by Individuals (CSFII)

US Department of Education   

  • National Center for Education Statistics

US Department of Health and Human Services

  • Hospital Compare
  • Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network

US Department of Justice         

  • National Crime Victimization Survey School Crime Supplements

US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

  • TRI data and tools for advanced/customized analysis

US General Services Administration (GSA)

  • gov

US National Toxicology Program (NIH)

  • National Toxicology Program Data

Vanderbilt University   

  • Latin American Public Opinion Project

Washington State Department of Health          

  • Comprehensive Hospital Abstract Reporting System (CHARS; public data only)

World Bank      

  • World Development Indicators, Global Development Finance, and additional statistical data files from the World Bank

World Health Organization       

  • Global School-Based Student Health Survey (GSHS)

 

 

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