Introduction KU’s Information Technology department conducted a data security audit in 2019 which resulted in three recommendations: 1) for all KUSSW employees to complete the required annual security training; 2) development of a data inventory for the School; and 3) annual updating of said data inventory. In response, the Research Office at KUSSW has worked with KUSSW IT to initiate a data inventory with annual updates, established a location within Twente (Rm 12) for hard file data storage and created this guide to disseminate information regarding data security to all of those who deal with research data within the School. We also recently moved all REDCap hosting to KUSSW to allow our researchers to continue to use this valuable service. A big part of our continued data security success of this includes you doing a few things annually: 1. Take the data security trainings through KU IT online (pg. 3) 2. Comply with updating your data inventory annually (pg. 5) 3. Report any and all issues to the IRB as soon as they happen 4. Everyone on a project should be aware of the data they have and have access to Of special note: For data retention on funded grants, ALL documents must be retained for 5 YEARS after the final payment. This policy is only to be overruled if your grant requires documents be held for longer (pg. 6). The first place you should always check is your grant contract that outlines the data security plan you created for your project in addition to your IRB application with the University. Remember that a contract is legally binding and it’s extremely important to adhere to the data plan you originally created, or work with your sponsor to amend the plan, if needed. We hope you find this guide helpful.
Please direct any questions about data security to: Associate Dean for Research Amy Mendenhall: amendenhall@ku.edu KUSSW IT Director Todd Issac: toddi@ku.edu KUSSW Research Office: kusswro@ku.edu
