Accessing data
Collaborating with the global malaria research community, WWARN promotes data sharing and data re-use to generate new evidence that improves health and understanding of malaria. Researchers can request access to malaria individual patient data held in the IDDO repository.
TOTAL INDIVIDUAL PATIENT DATA
TOTAL NUMBER OF COUNTRIES
TOTAL NUMBER OF INSTITUTIONS
TOTAL NUMBER OF DATA CONTRIBUTIONS
- Explore the types and volumes of data available on the platform using the WWARN Malaria Data Inventory, which is updated monthly. The inventory records all Data Contributions that have been shared to the WWARN platform, and includes data that has not yet been curated. Please note all data will require curation before it can be released.
- Read the Data Access Guidelines and Data Use Agreement
- Download and complete a Data Access Application Form. Include the details of the Data Contributions you are requesting as listed on the Data Inventory.
- Submit the form to dataaccess@wwarn.org
Following an internal review, applications to access data are assessed as per the choice of the data contributor, either by:
- An independent IDDO Data Access Committee (DAC)
- A contributor-controlled process – where the data contributor assesses each data access application that requests the re-use of their data
The technical, governance and ethical framework for our data access strategy has been developed to promote access to data for research, while protecting the rights and privacy of the people and communities from which the data originate, and respecting the investment of the researchers who conducted the studies and collected the data.
Therefore, following permission to re-use data, data requestors must contact the relevant data contributors to offer the option of collaborating on the planning, execution and publication of the proposed secondary analysis, and the data contributor must also always be cited when data are re-used. All of the data re-use terms are set out in the Data Use Agreement.
View a visual summary of the IDDO Data Access Journey
As part of our data governance process, we carry out a Data Transfer Risk Assessment to ensure that we comply with the UK’s General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), and specifically its guide to international transfers. Find out more about the GDPR and guidance on international transfers on the UK Information Commissioner’s Office website.
We are constantly curating new data, so we do occasionally have curated datasets which have not yet been updated into our data inventories: please get in touch dataaccess@iddo.org if you have questions.
Malaria data is available in two different formats, depending on when the data was shared with WWARN. This is identified as either Mapper format (legacy pre-2018 data format) or SDTM format in the Data Inventory. Mapper data is described by the WWARN Data Dictionary and SDTM data is described by the IDDO SDTM Implementation Manual, both of which are freely available to use as a reference guide for understanding the data variables listed in data files stored in the WWARN Malaria Data Inventory. This file is subject to change, please check back closer to the time of your analysis to ensure you’ve downloaded the latest version of the file.
Please keep in mind the following important considerations when reviewing the WWARN Data Dictionary and the IDDO SDTM Implementation Manual:
- Not every study contributed to WWARN collected all the variables described in these documents;
- In a publication, Data Contributors may have reported collecting data listed in these documents, but may not have shared those variables with WWARN;
- We will let you know after receiving your request if your selected data requires curation and the time this is expected to take.
