About Our Decision Process and Terminology

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Data Access Unit

A St. Jude Cloud Data Access Unit (DAU) is a grouping of data that typically corresponds to a project, study, or dataset generated at the same time at the same institution. Each DAU has its own governing body of researchers, the Data Access Committee, who preside over the data and who may grant or deny access. Each Data Access Committee has its own protocols for approving access to their DAU. Please contact us if you have questions about committee approval protocols. We currently have 5 DAUs: Pediatric Cancer Genome Project (PCGP), St. Jude Lifetime Cohort Study (SJLIFE), Genomes for Kids (G4K) and Clinical Genomics, Sickle Cell Genome Project (SGP), and Childhood Cancer Survivor Study (CCSS). For a brief description of each DAU see the Studies page. For a more detailed description please see the respective Schedule 1(s).

Data Access Agreement

A St. Jude Cloud Data Access Agreement (DAA) is a legally binding document outlining a number of terms and conditions to which anyone working with St. Jude Cloud data must agree. We do not negotiate the terms of this document unless terms are found to be in conflict with the institution’s state law. Filling out the Data Access Agreement carefully and completely is crucial to having your request approved promptly. Click Here to download a copy of the DAA. Click Here for a step by step guide on how to fill out the DAA.

If you have incompletely or incorrectly filled out your DAA and would like to upload a revised form, Click Here for instructions.

Once you have submitted a correctly filled out DAA and have been granted access to one or more Data Access Units (DAUs), you can continue checking out files from those DAUs until your access expires. Access is generally granted for 1 year, at which point you must submit an Extension Addendum to continue using the data. Click Here for a step-by-step guide on how to fill out the Extension Addendum.

Data Access Committee

A St. Jude Cloud Data Access Committee (DAC) is group of St. Jude researchers who oversee access to a particular Data Access Unit (DAU) and evaluate incoming data requests.

The first time you request access to files in a DAU, it is required that you fill out a Data Access Agreement (DAA). Access is granted at the DAU level based on the decision of each DAC upon reviewing the DAA.

example

For example, if you make a request asking for all of St. Jude’s Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia sequencing data, you might be asking for data from multiple different projects (DAUs) here at St. Jude. For the sake of the example, let’s say the data you want is spread across three different DAUs. Once you place a request, your application will be routed to the corresponding three data access committees for approval. Since each DAC is made up of different individuals using different criteria for evaluation, you may or may not be approved for access to all of the files.

Embargo Date

The Embargo Date specifies the date that a publishing embargo on the file in question has been lifted. Publishing using any of the files before the embargo date has passed is strictly prohibited as outlined in the Data Access Agreement (DAA). Typically, samples from the same Data Access Unit (DAU) all have the same embargo date, as they would have been released on St. Jude Cloud at the same time.

Current Embargo Dates

Data Access Unit	Embargo Date
Pediatric Cancer Genome Project	July 23, 2018
St. Jude LIFE	January 15, 2019
Clinical Genomics	Rolling based on release date
Sickle Cell Genome Project	September 1, 2019
Childhood Cancer Survivor Study	November 1, 2019
Pan-Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia	January 14, 2019