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Data Access Policy: governance of access to Oxford Population Health data

Oxford Population Health data access committee

This group, which is chaired by the Head of Department (Professor Sir Rory Collins), is responsible for oversight of the Departmental and study-specific data access policies, procedures and timelines for data availability, development of IT infrastructure required to support data-sharing, development of website materials and communications, procedures for data extraction and provision of supporting services, reviewing publications to ensure compliance with data-sharing rules (eg confidentiality, acknowledgement of funders), and reviewing metrics (eg on applications, timelines and resulting publications) relevant to the Department’s data-sharing activities.

Oxford Population Health data access management team

This team is responsible for supervising all the practical procedures and processes involved in accessing data held by the Department. This includes: management of the approval system for data access requests; supervision of data extraction and provision of associated services; tracking of applications, decisions and outputs; maintaining accurate and up-to-date information on all studies at the Department’s website, and the provision of advice to data requesters.

External Oversight Committee

The department’s External Oversight Committee (EOC) is responsible for:

  • Providing advice and oversight on the department’s data access policy, with particular attention to ensuring that the policy develops appropriate responses to ethical, geo-political, and strategic issues;
  • Advising on study-specific access policies and procedures;
  • Providing an advisory and appeals function for data access requests that are declined (as required).
  • Reviewing progress with data sharing by the different groups and studies, and advising on whether procedures could be adjusted to improve performance;
  • Reviewing publication metrics and the scientific contribution resulting from data-sharing.

Membership of the EOC will include senior figures from a wide range of backgrounds, including academic specialties (such as epidemiology, genetics, and clinical specialties relevant to the Department’s research interests), medical ethics, and lay representation. Meetings will be convened twice a year (in person or via video/tele-conference).

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