As members of Institute for Sustainable Communities, we believe that the sharing of data is a key part of our responsibility as engaged researchers and is essential for the expedited translation of research results. We pledge to share data with research collaborators and community engagement partners as rapidly as possible. For example, as soon as data collection is complete, preliminary findings will be returned to community engagement partners via a research brief, community presentation, or access through online means. This type of dissemination should not preclude the publications of a peer-reviewed manuscript at a later time.
 
To the extent possible, all data will be made available to the entire Institute for Sustainable Communities research community immediately after publication. In addition, each researcher will pledge to rapidly share aggregated primary data with practitioners who provide it (e.g., survey results will be rapidly shared with respondents). Both raw data and data that have undergone quality assurance/control will be made available with appropriate documentation and explanations.
 
All senior researcher faculty will be responsible for making data available to all Institute for Sustainable Communities members and overall management of data will be the primary responsibility of the Director, Philip Berke, and the Discovery Project Leads. The Lead and the Program Manager will work to build a data-sharing infrastructure to serve our collaborative efforts. In exchange for participation in the Institute for Sustainable Communities, graduate students must also agree to this data sharing pledge.
 
This policy is consistent with the policies of federal agencies that require data sharing as a condition of funding, including the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF).