Creating a Restricted Data Deposit for AEA Publications

The original guide on how to deposit restricted-access data on openICPSR is available here. DO NOT USE THOSE INSTRUCTIONS, AS THEY ARE NO LONGER ACCURATE.

The AEA requires that data be as open as legally and ethically possible. To deposit restricted-access data, to the best of our knowledge, no uniquely optimal solution exists. We are looking into options. In order to satisfy our requirements, the approval process must be disconnected from the original authors (authors cannot be gatekeepers, unless unavoidable). This severely limits the options.

Please talk to us if you know of other options that you think might satisfy the following conditions:

• the approval process does not involve the author
• the approval process can be maintained for a minimum of five years after publication of the manuscript
• the approval process respects the conditions imposed on data access by the author as well as the author’s data providers (i.e., must be compliant with the particular DUA, contract, or IRB protocol governing access to the author’s data)

Currently known options:

• Dataverse allows for a guestbook, which also requires acknowledgement of any license-specific questions. See instructions. Untested, but likely to meet certain criteria. Unlikely to be compliant if IRB approval is required.

• Zenodo allows for “restricted access” but always requires approval by the depositor. It may be possible to designate multiple authorized depositors by submitting to the AEA Community on Zenodo, but that process is untested.