The National Children's Study Archive Model: A 3-Tier Framework for Dissemination of Data and Specimens for General Use and Secondary Analysis

The National Children’s Study (NCS) Archive was created as an information, data, and sample repository for the NCS Vanguard Study -- a longitudinal pregnancy and birth cohort designed to investigate the effects of environmental exposures on child health and development in the U.S. -- to provide qualified researchers with access to NCS data and samples. The National Children’s Study Archive (NCSA) model is a 3-tiered access model designed to make the wealth of information and materials gathered during the NCS Vanguard Study available at a user appropriate level. In accordance with the 2/26/2003 Final NIH Statement on Sharing Research Data (1) the NCSA model was developed as a 3-tier framework, for users of varying access levels, providing intuitive data exploration and visualization tools, an end-to-end data and sample request management system, and a restricted portal for participant-level data access with a team of experts available to assist users. This platform provides a model to accelerate transformation of information and materials from existing studies into new scientific discoveries.