TCRDC OPERATIONS

All research is conducted in secure laboratories located at Duke University that are operated in partnership with the U.S. Census Bureau's Center for Economic Studies (CES).

The TCRDC is supported by 17 member institutions with initial support from the National Science Foundation (NSF).

• Non-members may access the TCRDC laboratories for a fee.

Facility Information |  Funding and Fees |  Approved Projects |  Project Completion    

FACILITY INFORMATION

The TCRDC laboratories provide each project with workspaces, a place to secure research materials, and thin-client workstations to remotely access the Census Bureau data.

Available software includes:

• SAS
• Stata
• Gauss
• a word processing utility

Please consult with the RDC Administrator if other software is necessary for your project.

Hours of operation:

• During normal business hours, the TCRDC Administrators employed by the RDC provide computing and research support.
• Researchers with active projects may access the laboratories 24/7.

TCRDC projects take place at:

• Non-Duke TCRDC researchers should contact the RDC Administrators for information on after hours access to the building..

FUNDING AND FEES:

• If the researcher is associated with a Consortium member institution the lab fees are covered by the institution's membership contribution.
• If the researcher is not associated with one of the Consortium member institutions,the researcher may access the TCRDC by paying a fee; current maximum allowable fees are $10,000 per year for one fifth-time access to a terminal (based on one day per work week).
• Additional fees may be charged to projects that use data sets outside the core or that impose other special costs on CES, the Census Bureau, or the RDC.

Contact the TCRDC Administrator or Executive Director for more detailed information about costs, funding, and availability.

STEPS FOR APPROVED PROJECTS

• Obtain Special Sworn Status .
• Complete researcher agreements that describe terms and conditions under which the research must be conducted .
• Provide any needed external data files to the RDC Administrator and CES computing staff .
• Meet any Human Subjects review board criteria for their home institution.

DISCLOSURE AND CONFIDENTIALITY

All research conducted at the TCRDC falls under Title 13 regulations. Federal law prohibits disclosure of information contained in data prepared by the Bureau of the Census. As a result, research at the TCRDC takes place under conditions that are more restrictive than a typical research environment.

• Output-printed or otherwise-may not be removed from the TCRDC until it has been cleared for release by the RDC Administrator and CES. Any released output is released by email from the Census Bureau headquarters.
• For certain projects, output may be subject to additional review by the Census Bureau's Disclosure Review Board.
• Each researcher on the project who wishes to see undisclosed output at the TCRDC must obtain Special Sworn Status (SSS).
• No analysis can be performed outside of the TCRDC laboratories.
• Outside computing equipment or devices that provide access to email or text messaging, cannot be brought into the lab by researchers. The prohibited devices include laptops, cell phone with text messaging or email capabilities and portable digital media devices such as flash drives.
• Data may only be used for the approved project.

Significant limitations on what output may be released exist in order to maintain confidentiality standards:

• projects must emphasize output from statistical models
• intermediate output, including detailed tables of descriptive statistics and regression models based on small sample sizes typically cannot be removed from the RDC
• intermediate output, defined as output that is intended for sharing with co-authors or graduate advisors but is not intended for publication or presentation at seminars and conferences, will generally not be released
• Large detailed tables of descriptive statistics or statistics computed from very small samples present a disclosure risk and generally will not be released.

Researchers should keep in mind that:

• the clearance process for releasing statistics from the RDC may take several weeks
• coordination with the RDC Administrator on timelines for disclosure analysis in advance of presentations or circulation of papers is strongly recommended
• co-researchers and graduate advisers who want to view preliminary or intermediate output should obtain SSS and visit the RDC rather than requesting this output for release.

A complete description of the research environment at the RDCs and more details on disclosure avoidance and confidentiality are available on the CES web site.

PROJECT COMPLETION

Access to all files ends at midnight on the last day of the project.

• All data and programs remain in the possession of the Census Bureau.
• Researchers should provide documentation of all programs developed to conduct the research.

Extensions may be requested in some circumstances, but note that they are rarely granted in the case of projects using Federal Tax Information.

Reactivation of projects is permitted for one month at no charge to complete a reasonable set of revisions for publication, as long as a researcher's SSS is current.

Researchers are required annual progress reports including:

1. a statement describing how the proposed benefits to the Census Bureau were realized
2. a CES working paper and copies of any papers or publications based on the research
3. a technical memo detailing the findings that pertain to the Census Bureau benefits

A summary project report  within 6 months of the end of a project is also required.

An acknowledgement must be included on all researchers' publications resulting from use of data at the TCRDC; contact the RDC Administrators for the specific language.