Due to the COVID-19 situation worldwide, many persons are working within new environments (for instance, from home) which are not a part of their Data Protection Plan as registered with ANES. These persons should cease their use of ANES Restricted Data until returning to their original work environment as described in their Data Protection Plan. For users who are newly requesting access to ANES Restricted Data, most work-at-home situations are not sufficient in terms of a Data Protection Plan and so we may not be able to deliver Restricted Data to those persons until they return to work at their institution. We are aware that some users may have to work from home for an extended time, and are working on a solution to facilitate their secure access to the data. We will update this website, and current applicants, once that solution is in place.

ANES items identified as Restricted Data are not publicly released and are available only under specific contractual conditions. Access can be requested only through the application process outlined here and only for the purpose of scientific and public policy research. The ANES greatly values the trust our respondents place in us to protect their confidentiality and for this reason, we impose strict legal and electronic requirements. We have tried to minimize the danger of breaches of respondent anonymity in both unrestricted and restricted datasets by aggregating critical variables such as geographic location and occupation/industry up to less specific levels than those provided by the respondent. We have also devised the contractual procedure described below to ensure that restricted datasets are released only to people who meet stringent conditions designed to protect the anonymity of respondents.

Violations of respondent anonymity, or of ANES agreements, or of the procedures designed to ensure that such violations do not occur, would be very costly. They would violate the privacy of respondents and the trust they have placed in ANES to protect their anonymity. Such violations would also inflict an enormous loss on the entire research community, since they undermine the willingness of individuals to participate in surveys and of government agencies to provide data about respondents that can be merged with the survey data. Because the potential damage is so great, the procedures outlined below are particularly strict.

The following materials have been developed by the ANES Data Confidentiality Committee in consultation with security specialists at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research in an effort to permit dissemination of ANES restricted data to the maximum number of responsible researchers while satisfying its own concerns about respondent anonymity. We thank the Health and Retirement Study and ICPSR for generously sharing their Restricted Data Access documentation and procedures.

Get the Restricted Data Application