Research Collaboration: Procedures and Guidelines

The AHS investigators welcome collaborations with outside investigators. Guidelines for initiating collaborations can be found in the policy book under AHS Policy 2.4 - Guidelines for Collaboration. If you are interested in working with AHS data, the first step is to contact the appropriate investigator for specific broad research areas listed below and Michael Alavanja, the AHS Project Officer.

To facilitate collaboration, the study orientation document was created to summarize study design, cohort size, response rates to different study components, and numbers of cancer/mortality outcomes observed from the cohort. Investigators interested in using the Agricultural Health Study data should first contact a member of the Agricultural Health Study Executive Committee to determine if their proposed project is feasible, appropriate for the Agricultural Health Study, and available for extramural collaboration. Investigators with meritorious research plans will be asked to develop a brief research proposal that will be circulated and discussed by the principal investigators at the collaborating agencies (the Executive Committee) and, as warranted, by members of the Agricultural Health Study Advisory Panel.

Studies that involve the analysis of existing data are encouraged and whenever possible should be done in collaboration with an Agricultural Health Study investigator. Investigators can find the questionnaires on the Web site and should make requests for only those variables that are pertinent to the research question posed. No identifying information on individual participants will be provided. Studies that involve new data collection must involve an Agricultural Health Study investigator as a collaborator and must be self-supporting. New data collections must be coordinated with other efforts involving study participants to minimize the burden on study participants. Other restrictions may apply in order to protect the privacy and other rights of study participants.

Outline of instructions

Extramural investigators interested in using data from the Agricultural Health Study should first contact a member of the Agricultural Health Study Executive Committee to discuss their proposal. A letter of intent outlining the study protocol, the reason for the specific data request and intended use of the data should then be sent to the NCI Project Officer:

Dr. Michael Alavanja
Project Officer
National Cancer Institute
6120 Executive Boulevard, Room 8000
Rockville, MD 20852

A Request for Data Analysis File Form (RDAF) will be provided, and the completed form should accompany the letter of intent to the Project Officer. The variables requested from each questionnaire type and the years for which the data are needed should be indicated on the request form. All lead authors and secondary authors should initial the form. In addition, a Confidentiality Agreement/No Publication Agreement prohibiting the use of the Agricultural Health Study data for other than the pre-specified uses outlined must be signed by the extramural lead investigators and should accompany the data request form.

The government investigators have a responsibility to ensure that proposed projects do not overlap with ongoing efforts by government or extramural investigators. Informed consent agreements, privacy and human subject research policies dictate that names and other personal identifiers of study participants can only be made available to government scientists and their collaborators. Thus, collaboration with government investigators on the project is required.

Upon receipt of the letter and RDAF form, the NCI Project Officer will forward the request to the Principal Investigators at NIEHS and EPA to review and identify investigators from the collaborating Agricultural Health Study institutes/agencies who are appropriate for collaboration in the proposed project. Collaboration between Agricultural Health Study investigators and the extramural scientists would typically occur at all stages of the study and would be expected to result in joint authorship of scientific reports with the grantee being the senior author. At the discretion of the Agricultural Health Study Executive Committee, a selected panel made up of Agricultural Health Study Advisory Panel members may be chosen to review the proposal. The panel members selected will vary depending on the proposal topic and the panel member's area of expertise.

If approved as an acceptable project, the NCI Project Officers will sign the Request for Data Analysis File form and forward the approved data request to EPA, NIEHS and other identified collaborators for signature. When full approval has been given and the confidentiality agreement signed, the NCI Project Officers will submit the request to the Coordinating Center for processing. A data file will be delivered to the principal investigator on the particular project within 20 working days of receipt of a fully approved RDAF form and signed Confidentiality Agreement/No Publication Agreement.

Publication Guidelines for the Agricultural Health Study

Only persons who contributed to the intellectual content of the paper should be listed as authors. To this end, authors should meet all of the following criteria (so that persons named can take public responsibility for the content of the paper):

1. conceived and planned the work that led to the paper, or interpreted the evidence it presented, or both
2. wrote the paper or took part in revising it
3. approved the final version

Participation in collecting and assembling data reported in a paper is not, by itself, sufficient for authorship, but parties who do this will receive manuscripts for review, when the manuscript is based on information these parties have collected or assembled. A copy of all manuscripts developed from the Agricultural Health Study data must be submitted to the Project Officers or Principal Investigators of each agency, NCI, NIEHS, and EPA prior to submission for publication. The Project Officers/Principal Investigators will complete their reviews within 20 working days of submission.