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Review
. 2008 Feb;5(2):e57.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.0050057.

Should data from demographic surveillance systems be made more widely available to researchers?

Daniel Chandramohan  1 , Kenji Shibuya, Philip Setel, Sandy Cairncross, Alan D Lopez, Christopher J L Murray, Basia Zaba, Robert W Snow, Fred Binka
Affiliations
Review

Should data from demographic surveillance systems be made more widely available to researchers?

Daniel Chandramohan et al. PLoS Med. 2008 Feb.

Abstract

Demographic surveillance--the process of monitoring births, deaths, causes of deaths, and migration in a population over time--is one of the cornerstones of public health research, particularly in investigating and tackling health disparities. An international network of demographic surveillance systems (DSS) now operates, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. Thirty-eight DSS sites are coordinated by the International Network for the Continuous Demographic Evaluation of Populations and Their Health (INDEPTH). In this debate, Daniel Chandramohan and colleagues argue that DSS data in the INDEPTH database should be made available to all researchers worldwide, not just to those within the INDEPTH Network. Basia Zaba and colleagues argue that the major obstacles to DSS sites sharing data are technical, managerial, and financial rather than proprietorial concerns about analysis and publication. This debate is further discussed in this month's Editorial.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: Basia Żaba is Principal Investigator of the Alpha network of DSS sites specializing in HIV research (the network facilitates joint data analyses). Fred Binka is on the staff of the INDEPTH Network secretariat supporting DSS sites in the developing world. The remaining authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

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References

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