Data transparency
IHME estimates are freely available for non-commercial use to the world’s researchers and policymakers according to GATHER best practices.
What is GATHER?
The Guidelines for Accurate and Transparent Health Estimates Reporting (GATHER) statement defines best practices for documenting studies that synthesize evidence from multiple sources to quantitatively describe past and current population health and its determinants.
These practices include documenting and sharing data inputs, estimates, and analyses and methods. Documenting the data inputs on which estimates are based, and the methods by which estimates are derived, is essential for the accurate interpretation and use of estimates.
Our research has been fully aligned with the suggestions outlined in GATHER since its launch in 2016.
Where does IHME share its data inputs?
We share source information about data inputs for all our research projects in the Global Health Data Exchange (GHDx), our catalog of the world’s health and demographic data. We also share intermediate data when possible so that others can better understand our work.
Source information about data inputs for the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) can be found through our GBD Data Input Sources Tool. The tool allows users to explore the GBD study’s input sources based on various criteria, and to export them.
For each input source, you can find:
- Reference information
- Location, sex, age range of population represented
- Years of data collection
- Sample size
- Standard error
- Links to the original provider of the dataset when possible
Where can I download IHME estimates?
Estimates from our research projects, including GBD, can be downloaded from:
Where does IHME share its analyses and methods?
Information about our analyses and methods can be found in:
- Our peer-reviewed research articles
- The mortality visualization, an interactive data visual showing how input data become estimates
- An Integrative Metaregression Framework for Descriptive Epidemiology, a book providing an in-depth explanation of IHME's disease modeling process
What principles guide our data use?
Respect for the individuals behind the data we use:
- We are grateful to those who are represented in the data, those who collected the data, and those who distribute or share the data with us.
- We protect individual-level data that may be sensitive.
- We honor agreements with data partners.
Our key data management practices are the output of these principles:
- We cite the data that we use in our research.
- We organize and share data source citations and other metadata in the GHDx.
- We share as much information as we can about data sources according to GATHER, while also maintaining the confidentiality of identifiable or restricted data per University of Washington School of Medicine policy, state and federal laws and regulations, and agreements that IHME enters into with data providers in order to receive data for analysis.
Data are stored in access-controlled servers at the University of Washington:
- Data are only available to internal users.
- Internal access to the data library drives is governed by access permissions that are maintained according to the user’s role, sensitivity of the data (e.g., presence of identifiers), and terms of applicable data use agreements.
IHME staff stay current on human subjects training so that we understand the implications of collecting and using human subjects data in our research.
We abide by data use agreements as required by data partners. Data use agreements are specific to data being shared and the organizations involved, but generally:
- Describe the intended and approved use of the data covered by the agreement.
- Identify those permitted to access or use the data.
- Define specific obligations of use of the data, such as notification of publications that use the data.