Please remember to add your name at the end. Send the letter. Your efforts to draft regulations that alleviate the worse aspects of the misguided requirement that the Freedom of Information Act be used to require release of research data are appreciated. In particular, we appreciate the proposal to restrict application of the law to data that has been published in peer review journals or cited in development of federal regulations. This will permit continued replication as part of the scientific process, without requiring premature release of data.
Confidentiality is of particular concern in education research.
Unless school systems and parents are assured of confidentiality they will be unlikely to participate in research studies. The proposed regulations go far toward permitting researchers themselves to determine the circumstances under which confidentiality might be compromised by the release of data. The proposed definition of research data and the exclusions which accompany it appear to make the regulations responsive to the new law while offering necessary protection for the rights of researchers and subjects. As a researcher, I will welcome specific guidelines with regard to the preservation of data to meet the regulations. I believe this additional requirement would assure that the regulations were directed to issues having substantial impact on society and would make administration of the law feasible.