Support

The following applies to scientific use files: Once your application has been received, we will first check whether the formal criteria for approval have been met. A data use agreement will then be drawn up. Once we have received the signed original agreement, you will receive the requested data. Please note that this process can take around four weeks.

Researchers, teaching staff and students at universities or publicly funded research institutes can apply for data.Students must name a person responsible for their research, as only this person can stamp the data usage agreement with the university seal.

Some studies are subject to restriction notices. This means that questions have been blocked by the data providers so that they can first complete their own qualification work on the topic. If a requested question violates a restriction notice, the request cannot be approved until the restriction notice expires. However, this occurs very rarely. You can see whether restriction notices apply on the respective study pages.

Not all studies provide information on the federal states.Access to the federal state variable, if available, is subject to special regulations in order to protect scientific and ethical quality standards.Most of the Scientific Use Files (Off-site) of the FDZ at the IQB do not contain federal state variables as standard.Comparisons between groups of countries are possible and must be described in the application.The federal state variable can be used as a control variable and must be described in the application.In both cases, no results for individual federal states may be reported.If federal states are to be identified and previously unpublished questions are to be investigated, an application procedure with scientific review is used (see novel country comparisons).Secondary analyses using data from a single federal state require the consent of the respective federal state.

For many issues, you can find comprehensive information on the respective study detail pages—for example, in scaling manuals, results reports, and other documentation—even without submitting a data use request.

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