Data submission, use, and access
The Broad Institute serves as the Data Coordinating Center (DCC) for the Association to Function Knowledge Portal (A2FKP) and its subset Community Portals, supported by the National Human Genome Research Institute. The DCC aggregates data, supports analyses, and continuously updates capabilities to disseminate results relevant to eleven organ systems that are affected by common diseases. The DCC is also responsible for sharing the results from the data coordination and analysis activities on the A2FKP. The A2FKP will serve as the gateway to a large and growing aggregation of data relevant to the genetics and genomics of 11 common disease areas along with analyses, tools, and visualizations to interpret those data.
Individual-level data will never be shared with A2FKP users. Individual-level data will reside in one or several data vaults behind a secure firewall. User-activated modules will be deployed behind the firewall to analyze the data or query precomputed results. The purpose of the A2FKP is to enable broad access to genetic information concerning common diseases in a form that meets user needs while maintaining individual privacy requirements. A2FKP users are encouraged to provide feedback on the extent to which the portal meets those goals.
Portal Access and Terms of Conduct
Data use and availability
All users are welcome to use results from analyses of these data to further their research without seeking explicit permission from the Portal team or funders.
User Responsibilities
Portal users are expected to abide by the following provisions on data use:
- Users will not attempt to download any dataset in bulk from the Portal, except those that are explicitly made available for public download
- Users will not attempt to identify or contact research participants
- Users will protect data confidentiality
- Users will not share any of the data with unauthorized users
- Users will report any inadvertent data release, security breach, or other data management incidents of which they become aware
- Users will abide by all applicable laws and regulations for handling genomic data
Agreeing to these provisions is a requirement of Portal use. Violating them may result in an NIH investigation and sanctions including revocation of access to the Portal.
Citing portal data
Users are welcome to cite the A2FKP in scientific publications. If users are citing a single dataset represented in the A2FKP, they should cite both the A2FKP and the relevant paper for that dataset.
Please use the following citation when referring to data accessed via this portal:
Association to Function Knowledge Portal. Year Month Date of access; URL of page you are citing.