Accessing Data as a Researcher — Secure Empirical Analysis Lab (SEAL)

Skip to McMaster Navigation Skip to Site Navigation Skip to main content

Faculty of Social Sciences

Data Analysis

Whether you have collected sensitive data that you want to make available to other researchers without doing all the vetting, or want to access sensitive data from a business or organization, SEAL exists to support your research. By serving as a secure intermediary, we allow researchers to access data with ease while being assured they are not putting it at risk. Below are some commonly asked questions from researchers:

1. How do I apply to access confidential data?

2. Does SEAL already have the data I need?

3. Can SEAL help me with ethics approval, funding requests, and establishing data sharing agreements?

4. How do I access the data once I get authorization? There are two ways:

Remote: What is a MobiKey and how do I use it?

In-person access: How do I access SEAL's facilities?

5. What kind of computers does SEAL have?

6. What software is available?

7. Can SEAL accommodate large and/or international teams?

8. How do I access my results when I'm ready to share them?

9. How much does data access and storage cost?

In the frequently asked questions tab you can browse the most common questions amongst researchers. If you have a question or request, connect with us.

Connect with SEAL

Please refer to currently available datasets, if you're interested in exploring data sets already within SEAL:

Currently Available Datasets