Data Access Request Form FAQ

The DAR Form is made accessible to Users over email after submitting a request through the Study Dashboard.

Anyone can submit a Data Access Request once creating an account on braincode.ca and signing the Platform Terms of Use.

As part of this process, the Study Investigator will be expected to provide the following information after submitting a data request through the dashboard. Please ensure that all the information provided is in English:

• Provide a Project Title and Brief Project Description (300 words max)

• Explain how the proposed study will impact brain health, or advance understanding of brain health (300 words max)

• Provide documentation that a Research Ethics Board/Institutional Review Board/Research Ethics Committee (“REB”) has reviewed your project. This includes the full REB proposal, REB approval or exemption letter from their local Institutional REB and any other pertinent documentation. For more information about REB requirements read our REB FAQ Article .

• Describe plans to disseminate the results from your project. This will include dissemination plans to all applicable stakeholders, including the public, scientific community, policy developers, government etc.

• Provide applicant’s curriculum vitae (CV)

• Indicate whether there are any special considerations for your data request

• Sign a Data Use Agreement

• Use a Brain-CODE Workspace to complete analyses. Please note that multi-factor authentication will be required for access.

The Data Access Request form should take about 30 minutes to complete.

After submitting a request, the proposal is reviewed by multiple committees, which can take up to 2 weeks. After approval, you will be notified within 1-2 business days with instructions on how to access your requested data cut.

The limitations on Data Use are as follows:  

• Data can only be used to conduct the OBI approved analysis, with REB approval or exemption letters provided to OBI prior to access; and

• Data is only made available to individuals who have been approved and have signed appropriate contractual agreements; and

• Data Access Requests that are for a Dataset from less than 5 participants will not be disclosed in Zone 3.  

Excel Workbooks for Microsoft 365, Excel 2021, Excel 2019, Excel 2016, Excel 2013, Excel 2010 and Excel 2007 have the following limitations:

• Opening Workbooks is limited by available memory and system resources

• Total number of rows and columns on a worksheet is limited to maximum 1,048,576 rows by 16,384 columns

• Sheets in a workbook is limited by available memory (default is 1 sheet)

Most of the data being released by Brain-CODE via Zone 3 Data Releases will exceed the limitations listed above.

We recommend end users view data in statistical programs in order to ensure the data is loaded correctly.

For further details regarding Excel specifications and limits, please contact Microsoft Support.