In Brief: Expanding Research by Sharing Data

The Data Resources Program was created by the U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice (NIJ) (the research arm of the Office of Justice Programs) to preserve data produced by NIJ-funded studies and make them available for secondary analysis by other researchers. Upon completion of a study, researchers submit the data to the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data. This article describes how archiving the data and making it available to other researchers contributes to NIJ's efforts to increase transparency, replicate findings, and extend research to the field. Making data and analytic methods available for scrutiny by others increases the transparency of the research process, gives other researchers the chance to validate findings, and enhances scientific integrity. For more information a list of Web sites are provided.