Adult Changes in Thought Study

Request ACT Data

Have an idea for a research project?
Interested in using ACT Study data for an analysis leading to a manuscript or other scholarly work?
Review the key steps involved in requesting ACT data.

The ACT Study is a complex, multifaceted research program, which has given rise to the ACT Data Repository, an extremely rich set of data. ACT wants these data to be widely utilized by researchers to advance our knowledge of aging. As such, investigators are encouraged to propose and develop scholarly works such as manuscripts and abstracts that leverage ACT data resources.

Researchers who are unaffiliated with ACT should consult with an ACT investigator when developing their data proposal and subsequent scholarly work.

Please note that the use of ACT data are prohibited for any for-profit purposes.

Researchers who have a developed plan for an analysis leading to a scholarly work should request data from ACT. This process is governed by the ACT Proposals and Publication Policy and is initiated by completing a Data Request and Manuscript Proposal Form.

To facilitate completion of the proposal form, ACT Study data documentation resources are available. Researchers unaffiliated with ACT should consult with an ACT investigator when completing their proposal form. The ACT Data Query Tool can help with identifying data variables and estimating sample sizes.

Separate proposal forms should be submitted if you have plans to use one dataset for more than one scholarly work.

Researchers submit their completed Data Request and Manuscript Proposal Form to the Proposals & Publications Committee (P&P) for approval. The P&P Committee regularly reviews all internal and external requests to use ACT Repository Data.

The P&P Committee will provide feedback on your proposal. If revisions are requested by the P&P Committee, you may be asked to submit an updated proposal form prior to approval. 

​​​Once approval is granted, researchers will work with the ACT Data & Analysis Core to confirm the requested data specifications.  If the researcher is external to KPWHRI and the proposed work is not part of the ACT U19 Aims, the researcher is required to sign and execute the ACT Collaborative Research Agreement & Data Use Agreement.

After the proposal is approved and the ACT dataset is received, a writing group of co-authors is formed and begins research towards the proposed scholarly work.

Authors are asked to follow the ACT Guidelines for Manuscript Development and appropriately cite the ACT funding sources described in the Manuscript Acknowledgement Guide.

The P&P Committee reviews final drafts of manuscripts, abstracts and other scholarly works that disseminate the results from analyses of ACT data. All scholarly works must be approved by the P&P Committee prior to their submission to a journal or conference or other dissemination.

To initiate the P&P review process, researchers complete designated sections of an author checklist and submit it to the P&P Committee along with your scholarly work in final draft form.