There is a scarcity of good quality, standardized, and relevant cost data that is necessary to estimate appropriate budgets, advocate for funding, allocate resources effectively, and monitor efficiency. This is in large part because the systems, capacity, and methods to produce and use such data are insufficient. The main options for addressing this problem are to 1) perform more studies, and 2) to compile existing data into a meta-database.

This meta-database can then be utilized to identify data gaps; produce guidelines for high quality and efficient cost data collection; provide accessible unit cost estimates of TB and HIV services; and describe economic behavior of HIV/TB services, such as minimum efficiency of scale.

Data producers will provide primary data sets, along with necessary code and documentation, which will be housed in the GHCC’s Dataverse within the Harvard’s Dataverse. Data producers will provide data through one of two options: 1) by uploading all data sets and documentation directly to the Dataverse or 2) by sharing data sets and documentation with GHCC member who will then upload it to the Dataverse. More specific requirements for content, structure, and format of the data to be submitted, along with detailed instructions for the two options for submitting data to the GHCC database, will be provided in the Memorandum of Understanding.

Data producers must be available to clarify and respond to questions regarding their data as necessary.

All data will be stored on a university-based (but not university-branded) open data site/cloud that ensures privacy and confidentiality of open source data.

All data will be stored in the GHCC Dataverse, which is housed within Harvard University’s Dataverse open-source web application. Dataverse is safe and secure and allows us to restrict access to data and assign roles and permissions to data contributors and managers. Each data contributor will have a sub-Dataverse that will house the data from their study, so they will have the option to assign permissions.

The GHCC will also abide by all IRB and funding organization agreements for dating sharing, and will take all ethical considerations into account on a case-by-case basis. For data that is restricted, any parties interested in accessing data housed in any of the sub-Dataverses in the GHCC Dataverse will have to submit a request (already imbedded in the Dataverse web application).

The GHCC Dataverse also contains guest books, a feature that parties will have to fill out when accessing data, which serves as a tracking system. The guest books include questions related to contact information and the purposes for which they want to access the data.

Data contributors will have opportunities to become authors on GHCC reports and papers. For GHCC reports that are published on the GHCC website, all authors who contributed to and participated in the preparation of the report will be given full credit within the official GHCC report. For GHCC academic papers, GHCC members may follow the protocol for proposing specific analyses. In general terms, the initial process involves submitting a tentative title, brief summary of analyses/project, which data are needed to accomplish the project, and a tentative team list of collaborators.

Authorship for GHCC publications will follow the International Committee on Medical Journal Editors authorship guidelines and will be determined based on the following criteria:

1. Substantial contributions to the conception or design of work; or acquisition, analysis and interpretation of data for publications
2. Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content
3. Final approval of the version to be published
4. Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved

Data contributors that do not meet these criteria will be acknowledged on all GHCC dataverse reports and papers as appropriate.

The GHCC will not publish based on single studies and therefore will not limit an author’s potential to publish their own data. We are happy to work with each data producer who submits data on a case-by-case basis, so that any specific requests on use of unpublished data can be addressed.

We understand that there may be some previous agreements about the collected data with the countries where the research was performed. If this is the case, we are open/available to communicate with specific countries and complete the necessary process to request and attain permission to use the data. We will follow all guidelines for appropriate use of data outlined in agreements with partnering and funding organizations. We will ensure that it is clear the countries permitted us to use the data and are given appropriate credit/acknowledgment.

We understand that USAID/Global Fund/DFID, etc. may have funded the costing studies, and that they possess the rights to the data and may not permit data sharing. We collaborate with several international funding organizations with USAID, GFTFAM and WHO and therefore we would be happy to communicate with funders.