Data Storage

Frank Lab Shared Google Drive & ISILON SHARE

Dropbox
- Brown University offers virtually limitless data storage to ALL Brown affiliates. Learn how to set up a Brown Dropbox account here.
- Our lab has a shared folder that all core researchers who perform experimental work (i.e. who run behavioral or EEG experiments in-lab) have access to. If you do not, ask the lab manager to add you.
- Within our lab's shared Dropbox, you should consider storing the following:
  - Task code (all of our experiments are run from within Dropbox anyways, so this is somewhat of a given)
  - Raw data
  - Data analysis scripts
  - All study documents (e.g. protocol, task design powerpoint, etc.)
Google Drive
Isilon
- Our lab has cloud storage under Brown's file service. It's generally been used for storing EEG data from past studies among other things.
- The cloud share is also linked to our lab's Virtual Machine/Web Server.
- Learn how to get up on our Isilon share here.

Personal Dropbox

There may be research-related documents that you'd prefer to keep private (messy exploratory code, manuscript drafts, etc). You may use either your Brown Dropbox (outside of the shared lab folder) or a personal Dropbox account to store this information.
There are also files that MUST be kept private in order to protect participants' rights and comply with IRB protocol (e.g. any files with personal identifiers). Sensitive data containing personal identifiers should NOT be stored.

Personal Identifiers + Personal Data

ANY data containing personal identifiers (names, emails, medical records, social security numbers, etc.) CANNOT be stored on Dropbox or Google , period. Not the lab's shared Dropbox, not your Brown Dropbox, not your personal Dropbox.
Whether certain types of Dropbox accounts are HIPAA compliant is a matter of debate; don't take the risk, and don't store personal identifiers on Dropbox.

External hard drives (OPTIONAL)

1TB external hard drives now cost ~$50 on Amazon. It is recommended that you regularly back up your data on at least one external hard drive.

Data privacy guidelines

Data that contains personal identifiers should NOT be stored on Dropbox. Period.

Data should be as de-individualized as possible. Further, the "key" linking subjects' identities to their responses should be stored separately from the data itself.

If you are storing data that could be used to identify an individual, that data must be stored on a password-protected hard drive.

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