FACTORS IN AGING: Best Practices in Archiving and Sharing Longitudinal Data Resources on Aging

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PROJECT SUMMARY The mission of the National Archive of Computerized Data on Aging (NACDA) is to create a dynamic and flexible data infrastructure to stimulate health research and advance knowledge as it relates to the gerontological lifecourse. Through the development and delivery of research resources and data services, NACDA alerts researchers to opportunities for secondary data analysis, provides tools to locate and access relevant materials, and enhances the availability of gerontological data. NACDA’s mission directly addresses the focus and expectations of the Archiving and Sharing of Longitudinal Data Resources on Aging (U24) (RFA- AG-17-016); representing a logical extension of the NACDA’s work for the past 35 years and the work of the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) for over half a century. To fulfill this mission, NACDA will accomplish four specific goals: 1) Enhance and expand the longitudinal collections maintained by the National Archive of Computerized Data on Aging and further develop its user-friendly data archive to support behavioral and social science research on healthy aging by focusing on areas of longitudinal, panel, repeat measure and linked data, and by encouraging researchers to share and archive these data; 2) Advise and assist in the documentation and archiving of data and metadata for researchers who are producing longitudinal, repeat measure and linked data, including guidance in methods that ensure adequate confidentiality review and protection for linked and geo-spatial data; 3) Distribute enhanced data and documentation to researchers in a form that will facilitate their use, do so in an efficient and cost-effective manner by creating products that can be used more effectively than the versions created by the original data producer; and 4) Facilitate secondary analysis by providing user support, access to data, training and consultation. By carefully tracking all aspects of user support requests and data use by the community, we will more effectively identify and target emerging research trends and training needs so we can continue to evolve our programs and support services. We accomplish this through the activities of the project staff under the leadership of established researchers at ICPSR, an advisory council, NIA Project Scientists, and the wide array of NACDA advocates drawn from the broader research community. Collectively, these groups will actively advise NACDA regarding its activities and its acquisition goals and make us a valuable partner for all researchers interested in the preservation, sharing and support of data that informs the aging lifecourse.