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You are here: Research Data Center

The SHARE data are distributed through our Research Data Center which is physically located at CentERdata on the Tilburg University campus in the Netherlands. The SHARE Research Data Center complies with the Criteria of the German Council for Social and Economic Data (document in German language) for providing access to microdata.

You can download the data from the SHARE Research Data Center under the following conditions:

1. Users have to sign a statement confirming that under no circumstances the data will be used for other than purely scientific purposes. Data will only be made available after these documents have been received, by mail or fax (care of Josette Janssen; address: CentERdata, Tilburg University, P.O. Box 90153, 5000 LE Tilburg, The Netherlands; e-mail: jjanssenuvt.nl; fax: +31 13 4662764). The required forms can be downloaded from this website using the above hyperlinks. Upon request a copy by fax can be sent. Upon receipt of the signed statements you will receive a username and password enabling you to download the data. SHARE users have to register only once. Registration is free of charge. The original login code and password stay valid for all subsequent releases of the data. Additionally, the data are available via the GESIS Data Archive for the Social Sciences.

2. Users are requested to provide references to all papers based on the SHARE data to the SHARE co-ordination team. Whenever a paper is being written using SHARE data, a disclaimer and an acknowledgement should be included in the following form: 

   “This paper uses data from SHARE release 2.3.0, as of November 13th 2009. SHARE data collection in 2004-2007 was primarily funded by the European Commission through its 5th and 6th framework programmes (project numbers QLK6-CT-2001- 00360; RII-CT- 2006-062193; CIT5-CT-2005-028857). Additional funding by the US National Institute on Aging (grant numbers U01 AG09740-13S2; P01 AG005842; P01 AG08291; P30 AG12815; Y1-AG-4553-01; OGHA 04-064; R21 AG025169) as well as by various national sources is gratefully acknowledged (see http://www.share-project.org for a full list of funding institutions).”

   When new releases become available the same disclaimer and acknowledgement apply, except for a new reference to the release number and date.

3. Data users should not make copies of the data available to others. Anyone wanting to use the data must contact CentERdata directly to request a copy of the data free of charge. An exception is the use of SHARE data for teaching purposes. Registered users who want to make SHARE data available to undergraduate students may do so without  special permission. However, doctoral students who want to use SHARE data for their own research should register.
4. Registered users of the data will be included in the list of users of the SHARE project.
5. In case of doubt whether or not the data have been used for purely scientific research, the Coordinator of SHARE will decide whether the password will be removed and legal action will be taken.