The NORC Data Enclave provides a confidential, protected environment within which authorized researchers can access sensitive microdata remotely. While public use data can be disseminated in a variety of ways, there is a more limited range of options for disseminating sensitive microdata that have not been fully de-identified for public use. Some data producers have sufficient economies of scale to develop advanced in-house solutions that serve the needs of external researchers, but most lack the resources to archive, curate, and disseminate the datasets they have collected. The NORC Data Enclave provides our partner organizations a secure platform where they can both host and build a research community around their data.
The creation of a research community around important datasets is the first step in developing a core body of knowledge about the data, fostering replication of research, and ensuring that research based on the data is acceptable to academic journals and policymakers. Enclave researchers are provided with a research environment, or collaboratory, that features discussion forums, wikis, blogs, and instant messaging (IM). These environments facilitate collaboration amongst geographically dispersed researchers, helping them share information and develop a knowledge infrastructure around the data. In addition to providing collaborative tools, Data Enclave staff produce detailed, Data Documentation Initiative compliant, metadata reports specific to each dataset.