Policy and Procedures

General Information

Obtaining Special Sworn Status

Researchers are required to obtain special sworn status prior to beginning research at the Maryland Census Research Data Center. To obtain special sworn status, researchers must be fingerprinted, make a sworn statement in the presence of a notary public, and provide additional information for background checks. Once completed, this process establishes the researcher as a temporary uncompensated employee of the U.S. Census Bureau.

Researcher Agreements
Researchers with approved projects sign an agreement with the University of Maryland and the Center for Economic Studies that stipulates the conditions under which data may be accessed at the Research Data Center. Any violation of the terms of this agreement will result in the termination of the project.

Disclosure Analysis
All statistical output researchers that is removed from the RDC must undergo disclosure analysis prior to removal. No printed or other output may be removed from the research data center without approval from the RDC administrator. Coordinating disclosure analysis with the RDC administrator with sufficient lead time before conference presentations or submission of journal articles is the responsibility of the researcher.

Post-Project Certification
All approved projects submit with their proposal a description of the benefits their project will provide to the Census Bureau. At the end of the every project, a write-up must describing how the promised benefits were provided (or in some cases, why the researchers were not able to provide them). Please remember that, under the U.S. Code, Title 13, Chapter 5, the Census Bureau is allowed to give the confidential data to researchers ONLY if the project will provide suitable benefits to the Bureau. Thus, documenting the benefits your project provided is VERY important. Researchers not completing this description of benefits will NOT be approved for future projects.

Pricing Policy

Please contact the Executive Director for more information.