The Foundation seeks to maximize the scientific impact of the study while ensuring its sustainability. Scientific research with the data and conversion of discoveries into new products or practices requires significant resources. We believe the greatest potential for impact is achieved through involvement by commercial, academic, and the broader research community. However, the foundation aims to ensure equity of access, considering the potential financial outcomes of data or sample use.
We ensure equitable access via four tiers:
- Tier 0 – General Public Open Access: Data that is publicly available without registration. We ask that researchers who use this data cite the study, but it is not encumbered by intellectual property limitations or costs to use the data.
- Tier 1 – Academic Open Access: Some data that is out of the initial one-year embargo period is shared on the MAF Data Commons website to academic researchers. The terms of its use are described in detail at the MAF Data Commons site. The goal is to allow academic researchers to access, study, and create research that results in publications in a suitable journal. However, they should not be able to make a commercial invention or patent without negotiating appropriate licensing terms with the Foundation.
- Tier 2a – Academic Reviewed Access: Academic researchers may apply via the GRLS RFP process to gain access to banked samples or data that is not provided in MAF Data Commons. The terms on publishing, licensing, and commercial use are governed by the RFP process but are generally similar to Tier 1.
- Tier 2b – Commercial Access: The limitations on this tier are determined on a case-by-case basis through a commercial partnership process that evaluates scientific value and any revenue associated with the project. This process determines the best path forward to ensure high levels of scientific impact and sustainability of the project. For example, platinum founding partners of the project were given unlimited, non-exclusive access to the study data with an embargo period before other partners can be given access to the data.
Requesting Access to Data
There are 4 different places to request access to data depending on the circumstance. If you are an academic researcher and unsure if the data is available already, check the list of datasets or contact us. That is much faster and easier than the RFP process.
| Academic researcher | Commercial researcher | |
|---|---|---|
| Data that is already transformed or scheduled above | Apply to become a user on the MAF Data Commons. If that does not contain the information you need, please contact us. | Submit a Golden Retriever Lifetime Study Partnership Request. |
| Data that is not yet transformed and not scheduled above | Apply for a grant via our Golden Retriever Lifetime Study RFP page. | Submit a Golden Retriever Lifetime Study Partnership Request. |
Available under Tier 0:
- The data for the paper "Endoparasitism of Golden Retrievers: Prevalence, risk factors, and associated clinicopathologic changes" is available in the paper as a CSV or on data.world
- The data for the paper "Age at gonadectomy and risk of overweight/obesity and orthopedic injury in a cohort of Golden Retrievers" is available as a SAS file to download from the paper’s webpage at DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0209131