Research Data Management

Sensitive data

See the section ‘Research Data Management Ethics’ in the Research Data Management Procedure for an overview of the topic and considerations on the following topics

What is sensitive data?

Working with sensitive data requires extra care. Often confidential, it can include:

• Identifiable personal and health/medical data
• Indigenous data
• Ecological data
• Commercial-in-confidence data

Sensitive data is commonly subject to legal and ethical obligations that impose restrictions on how it is accessed, used and handled. The data often can’t simply be published and made openly accessible. But metadata records can help with sharing sensitive information, if the records describe the data without directly reporting any of the confidential information.

Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC) provide a suite of information on sensitive data and dealing with sensitive data, click on the drop-down for an overview and direct links.

CARE Principles for Indigenous Data Governance

In the past the ‘Traditional Knowledges’ of Indigenous peoples have been used and either Copyrighted or made Open without the knowledge and permission of the Indigenous owners of those knowledges. In other instances, research has been conducted with Indigenous peoples who do not see the results of that research. See the ARDC page on Sensitive data for additional information and links.

The CARE principles describe how data should be treated to ensure that Indigenous governance over the data and its use are respected. ‘CARE’ is the acronym for:

• Collective benefits: Data ecosystems shall be designed and function in ways that enable Indigenous peoples to derive benefit from the data.
• Authority to control: Indigenous peoples’ rights and interests in Indigenous data must be recognised and their authority to control such data be empowered.
• Responsibility: Those working with Indigenous data have a responsibility to share how those data are used to support Indigenous peoples’ self-determination and collective benefit.
• Ethics: Indigenous peoples’ rights and wellbeing should be the primary concern at all stages of the data life cycle and across the data ecosystem.

The above is a brief outline, if research involves Traditional Knowledges then researchers should refer to the full framework which can be found in the following links.

Ethics and informed consent

If the data is working with humans or animals then an application will need to be made to the appropriate Ethics Committee.

When working with humans, those subjects need to know

• How the data will be de-identified
• How the data will be accessed and used
• What will happen with the data

If the decision is made after interacting with human participants, a new application to Ethics will need to be made along with informing the participants, so it is advisable to plan ahead.

See these Federation University procedures for information on applying for animal or human research ethics.

• Applying for Animal Research Ethics Procedure RS1923
• Applying for Human Research Ethics Procedure RS1922

Data Storage & Security   Plan & Design