Approval Process for a Submitted Data Request or Proposal to the On-site Data Centre
When reviewing a data request to access the on-site data centre, the criteria examined include but are not limited to:
- Demonstrated reasonable need for the data to answer the specified research question. This includes ensuring data is not accessible via the public use tables on the FNIGC website.
- Research is not harmful to the respondents or community.
- Benefits are clearly in the First Nations interest.
- Methodological and technical review
- Ethical considerations
- Not proprietary research such as research done for commercial marketing purposes.
In the first and second phase, FNIGC will review the technical and methodological aspects of the data access proposal. If modifications are required at this stage, the researcher will be advised to make the changes and resubmit. If approved, the proposal will continue onto the third phase. It is important to note that continuing onto the third phase does not guarantee final approval. The intent of the initial phases is to prepare the proposal for an overall review.
In the third phase, the FNIGC’s Ottawa office will provide a summary of the phase one and two reviews, along with a copy of the proposal, and any other supporting documentation to the Data Access Advisory Working Group. The intent of the advisory Working Group is to ensure that data access requests receive appropriate and diligent review and to carefully consider data access requests in the context of OCAP® and First Nations ethics prior to proceeding with access to data.
Contract
If a proposal or data request is accepted, a contract will be drafted for signature. All those accessing the on-site data centre must review the contract prior to working with the data at the FNDC. In addition, he/she must sign a Confidentiality Agreement and Acknowledgement of Policies and Procedures document.
Only those members of the research team who will either need access to the data or need to assist another team member accessing the data should be included on the contract. Any discussions regarding preliminary research results can only be held among those on the contract who have signed the confidentiality agreement. Help on software or statistical methods should come from members of the research team listed on the contract.
Amendments
Changes to the research project may require an amendment application that must be reviewed and approved by FNIGC and confirmed with a new signature to the Research Agreement. Such changes include, but are not limited to:
- Changes to the research question(s)
- Changes to Data fields requested
- Changes to years of Data requested
- Changes to cohort definition
- Extension of the contract