Sharing and reuse of mental health research data: Introducing the HeSANDA mental health node

Introduction Data sharing is the practice of making de-identified participant-level data available for use by other researchers. It increases the potential of a dataset to answer new questions, accelerates knowledge creation and increases research integrity by allowing conclusions to be replicated, verified or corrected. Data sharing helps fulfil the ethical obligation to make the most of research participants’ contributions to science. Analysis and Evidence There is evidence that research participants and the general public are supportive of data sharing. However, those who conducted the original studies may be reluctant to share data, and datasets may be difficult to access, and there may be ethical and governance concerns. Discussion This paper describes the Mental Health Node, an Australian Government initiative that aims to increase mental health data sharing. The Mental Health Node works with primary researchers (those who conduct original studies), and secondary researchers (those who reuse data generated by others) to promote ethical data sharing that respects the role of primary researchers and the privacy concerns of research participants. Conclusion Primary and secondary researchers can collaborate to maximise the value of data collected. This paper includes recommendations for good practice in data sharing and links to resources.