Since May 2018, the opportunities to obtain access to IAB research data in order to replicate scientific IAB publications have improved significantly. The data access, made possible by the establishment of a central archive and the passing of a statutory proceeding, serves to verify scientific honesty as part of good scientific practice. It is therefore prohibited to access data for other purposes through this channel. In particular, it is not possible to conduct one’s own analyses using the data provided. Generally, the option to access data for replication as part of this procedure is available for any projects started in or after May 2018 for ten years starting from the date of the respective publication. In individual cases, it may also be possible to access data used in older projects.
The kind of data used defines how and to what extent the IAB research data may be accessed for replication purposes. To this end, the IAB research data can be divided into three groups:
- (i) research data that may only be used by IAB staff;
- (ii) individual data preparation and data transmission for external researchers pursuant to Section 75 German Social Code, Book X (SGB X);
- (iii) data products provided via various data access channels by the Research Data Centre (Forschungsdatenzentrum, FDZ) to the research community.
If a third party doubts the results or there is evidence of scientific misconduct, access to the FDZ data (iii) may be granted via the respective FDZ data access channel. In case of all other IAB research datasets (i and ii), data access via the FDZ may only be granted after the process steps specified below have been completed, and data access continues to be required for clarification:
- Submit a request to review research results or in case of suspected scientific misconduct via the Ombudsperson Good Scientific Practice at the IAB. The Ombudsperson shall forward the request to the research unit in which the research project in question took place.
- The author of the study shall review the request and contribute to clear up the matter. This should include a review of the results on the part of the IAB author(s) and/or the research unit itself. If the IAB author is no longer with the IAB, the review responsibility shall pass on to the respective head of the research unit.
- If necessary, dataset descriptions and the programmes checked for data protection shall be provided.
- If steps 2 and 3 do not serve to clear up the matter, the Ombudsperson Good Scientific Practice at the IAB shall review the case to determine whether there is valid academic interest. This would be the case if, for example, there were any indications of misconduct.
- Only then, subject to review pursuant to Section 282 Paragraph 7 German Social Code, Book III (SGB III) and a review of the existing infrastructural prerequisites, can data access during a research visit at the FDZ be made possible.
- If data cannot be made available this way, the Ombudsperson Good Scientific Practice shall initiate a case-by-case review.
Pending review, the FDZ shall provide the technical prerequisites necessary for data access, i.e., a workspace and the FDZ standard software. For reasons of data privacy, no access shall be granted to contact data (real identifiers) and key tables. Any analysis results will only be released if they are required for publications which make reference to the original publication in the sense of scientific replication.