National Archive of Computerized Data on Aging
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The National Archive of Computerized Data on Aging (NACDA) is the world’s largest repository of secondary data on aging and health. NACDA’s mission is to advance research on aging by providing easy access to secondary data and by providing research support for this data.
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[edit] Description
A program within the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) homepage at the University of Michigan. The NACDA collection consists of over a fifteen thousand datasets relevant to gerontological research. By preserving and making these data available, NACDA offers opportunities for secondary analysis on major issues of scientific and policy relevance.
[edit] History
The NACDA Program on Aging began over 25 years ago under the sponsorship of the United States Administration on Aging (AoA) homepage. At that time NACDA was seen as a novel experiment, as neither the concept of a research archive devoted to aging issues or the idea of making research data freely available to the public were not well established. Over the years, NACDA’s mission has changed both in scope and in direction. Originally conceived as a storehouse for data, NACDA has aggressively pursued a role of increasing involvement in the research community by the active promotion and distribution of data. In 1984, the National Institute on Aging (NIA) homepage became the sponsor of the National Archive of Computerized Data on Aging, and NACDA has flourished under its support. Over the years, NACDA has evolved and grown in response to changes in technology. In many instances, leading the pace of change in methodology related to the storage, protection, and distribution of data.
NACDA was one of the first organizations to develop and release studies on CD-ROM. NACDA was also one of the first archives to experiment with the idea of offering elecronic research data as a public good, free to all interested individuals at no charge. The initial collection of 28 public use datasets first offered in 1992 has now expanded to over 1,000 datasets that are freely available to any researcher. The entire collection is stored online at the NACDA website, offering immediate access to gerontological researchers.
