TY - JOUR
T1 - Secondary data analysis to answer questions in human biology
AU - Rosinger, Asher Y.
AU - Ice, Gillian
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank the panelists and attendees of the Breakout session around this topic at the Human Biology Association 42nd Annual Meeting. Thanks to Kelly Ochs Rosinger and Dan T.A. Eisenberg for helpful conversations about this article. AR was supported by the College of Health and Human Development at Pennsylvania State University.
Funding Information:
Federally-funded research, such as by the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health, require that data collected by researchers whose projects were funded in part or in full by their respective federal agencies should be made available to other researchers in a way that does not compromise any confidentiality of human subjects either through an online repository or at a host institution, where other researchers and the public may access or request access to the data (https://grants.nih.gov/grants/policy/data_ sharing/; https://www.nsf.gov/pubs/policydocs/pappg17_1/ pappg_11.jsp#XID4). De-identification may prove difficult for some studies conducted in small-scale populations, in which case exceptions can be made about data release.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
PY - 2019/5/1
Y1 - 2019/5/1
N2 - Despite a growing number of publicly available datasets, the use of these datasets for secondary analyses in human biology is less common compared with other fields. Secondary analysis of existing data offers an opportunity for human biologists to ask unique questions through an evolutionary and biocultural lens, allowing for an analysis of cultural and structural nuances that affect health. Leveraging publicly available datasets for human biology research is a way for students and established researchers to complement their data collection, use existing data for master's and doctoral theses, pilot test questions, and use existing data to answer interesting new questions or explore questions at the population level. Here we describe where publicly available data are stored, highlighting some data repositories and how to access them. We then discuss how to decide which dataset is right, depending on the research question. Next, we describe steps to construct datasets, analytical considerations and methodological challenges, best practices, and limitations depending on the structure of the study. We close by highlighting a number of publicly available datasets that have been used by human biologists and other datasets that may be of interest to the community, including research that has been conducted on some example datasets.
AB - Despite a growing number of publicly available datasets, the use of these datasets for secondary analyses in human biology is less common compared with other fields. Secondary analysis of existing data offers an opportunity for human biologists to ask unique questions through an evolutionary and biocultural lens, allowing for an analysis of cultural and structural nuances that affect health. Leveraging publicly available datasets for human biology research is a way for students and established researchers to complement their data collection, use existing data for master's and doctoral theses, pilot test questions, and use existing data to answer interesting new questions or explore questions at the population level. Here we describe where publicly available data are stored, highlighting some data repositories and how to access them. We then discuss how to decide which dataset is right, depending on the research question. Next, we describe steps to construct datasets, analytical considerations and methodological challenges, best practices, and limitations depending on the structure of the study. We close by highlighting a number of publicly available datasets that have been used by human biologists and other datasets that may be of interest to the community, including research that has been conducted on some example datasets.
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U2 - 10.1002/ajhb.23232
DO - 10.1002/ajhb.23232
M3 - Article
C2 - 30861603
AN - SCOPUS:85062997983
VL - 31
JO - American Journal of Human Biology
JF - American Journal of Human Biology
SN - 1042-0533
IS - 3
M1 - e23232
ER -