title: Ethical issues in sharing epidemiologic data.
abstract: Concurrent with the explosion in large data files and computers capable of handling both linkage of large data sets and analyzing multiple studies for meta-analysis, this decade has seen a rise in professional concern about the need for researchers to share their data. As scientific groups began to address this question, its importance and complexity became quickly apparent. In this paper recent developments on the ethics of data sharing in statistics, sociology, psychology, and other fields related to epidemiology are summarized, followed by a discussion on why data should be shared, what kinds of data should be shared, who among epidemiologists should be sharing data, when it is appropriate to share data, and how data sharing should be conducted.
authors.forename: C J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Hogue
mesh_terms: D022126:Access to Information / Q000941:ethics; D035843:Biomedical Research; D032781:Codes of Ethics; D003201:Computers; D003219:Confidentiality; D003625:Data Collection; D004813:Epidemiology; D004995:Ethics, Professional; D006801:Humans; D033181:Information Dissemination; D011996:Records