Enhancing Data Sharing Via Safe Designs: Generating Knowledge to Inform Scientific Practice

Abstract

The social value of data collections are dramatically enhanced by the broad dissemination of research files and the resulting increase in scientific productivity. Currently, most studies are designed with a focus on collecting information that is analytically useful and accurate, with little forethought as to how it will be shared. Both literature and practice also presume that disclosure analysis will take place after data collection. But to produce public-use data of the highest analytical utility for the largest user group, disclosure risk must be considered at the beginning of the research process. Drawing upon economic and statistical decision-theoretic frameworks and survey methodology research, this study seeks to enhance the scientific productivity of shared research data by describing how disclosure risk can be addressed in the earliest stages of research with the formulation of "safe designs". Implications for various research costs are also discussed.