GWAS Central data policy

GWAS Central is committed to data sharing wherever possible, to maximise the value and scientific impact of data. However, this has to balanced against the risk of identifying research subjects (see Homer et al 2008: http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1000167).

Additionally, data in GWAS Central are curated and integrated, making them unique as an asset. For these reasons, our policy on data sharing is that we openly provide large amounts of data (up to 1,000 markers and associated data per download), in a range of displays and formats, sufficient for the needs of most researchers. Complete downloads of one single individual study (or a few) will be permitted only when researchers contact GWAS Central directly and agree to the following data access agreements:

1) The user agrees not to further share the data with others

2) The user confirms and commits that they will not permit the data to be used for setting up any form of competing resource

3) The user confirms the supplied data will not be used in support of any commercial activity

4) You appropriately cite GWAS Central website and the publication (GWAS Central: a comprehensive resource for the comparison and interrogation of genome-wide association studies; PMID:24301061) in any communication using the data obtained from the site

We do not allow downloading of the complete database, or very large segments of it, but this can be discussed in special cases (e.g. as part of a collaboration) that do not involve competing projects or commercial use of the data. Please contact help@gwascentral.org for further details.