Data Sharing

The Data Sharing Committee (DSC) comprises the Whitehall II study Director and PI, co-Investigators and associated senior study researchers, statisticians and the core operational team. 

The committee meet once a month to review the scientific merit and the suitability of the Whitehall II Study, for the data sharing requests as well as the ability of the applicants(s) to deliver on the project.  The proposals can be approved fully, or approved pending further information or rejected, with an explanation to the applicant.

Data Sharing Committee Members
Prof Mika Kivimaki, Director and PI, The Whitehall II study
Professor Eric Brunner, (Co-PI)
Professor Archana Singh Mantoux, (Co-PI)
Professor Jenny Head, (Statistician)
Professor Annie Britton, (Epidemiologist)
Professor Meena Kumari, (Genetics studies)
Dr Martin Shipley, (Statistician)
Dr Adam Tabak, (Clinician and Senior Research Associate)
Dr Severine Sabia (Senior Research Associate)
Dr Sara Ahmadi-Abhari, (Senior Research Associate)
Dr Jatinderpal Kalsi, Mrs Beverley Milne, Mrs Stephanie Smith (Core Study Team)

For individual level data, please submit the following two documents:

1. the WII Data Sharing Application Form in rft format (also in PDF).
2. the WII Excel data dictionary with the list of variables needed for the project. Please highlight only the variable names needed for your project.

The WII research team meets monthly to evaluate all applications received. Upon approval of an application, applicants will be asked to sign the WII Data Sharing Agreement (last page of application form) and proceed with the payment.

Within two weeks of the receipt of this document and of the payment, the data manager will release an anonymised dataset, tailor-made for each project.

For aggregate data, please contact the researcher you wish to collaborate with.

You can obtain a detailed description of the WII variables in the following sources:

- Excel data dictionary

- Questionnaires

- Clinical Measures

On request, we can supply documentation such as copies of other WII questionnaires (FFQ, MMSE, GKQ, cortisol diaries, etc), clinical protocols and syntax of derived variables.

From the 1st September 2017 the Whitehall II study there will charge a fee of £500 + VAT for each data sharing project. This will cover the administrative costs associated with the management and generation of the bespoke dataset.

This fee will need to be paid upon approval of the application. 

To proceed with the payment, please click on the link below. You will need to have your data sharing reference number in hand.

• Whitehall II Data Sharing Fee

Additional requests might incur further costs depending on the required data management time.

Over the last 10 years, the Whitehall II study has released aggregate and individual-level data for many research projects, including a large number of international consortia.

Up to end of May 2018 we received 242 data sharing applications (Excel file) for individual level data. Many of these applications were for external projects, ie, not involving authorship of Whitehall II researchers.

Approval rate:

• 227 at first submission
• 14 re-submission requested (10 received)
• 1 refused

Year	External	Collaborations (inc. consortia)	Genetics	TOTAL
2006 (pre - DS)	0	4	3	7
2007	2	3	0	5
2008	5	10	11	26
2009	3	7	11	21
2010	7	6	5	18
2011	5	13	4	22
2012	5	6	5	16
2013	3	14	4	21
2014	4	9	2	15
2015	8	6	6	20
2016	13	6	4	23
2017	19	6	1	26
TOTAL	96	91	55	242

• See below the geographical distribution of our individual-level data transfers up to the end of May 2018:

  

Please check our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs).