MIDUS Open Science Policy

All MIDUS data are archived and made publicly available—and are thus share-able—via the University of Michigan Inter-university Consortium of Political and Social Research (ICPSR) or the MIDUS Portal. Per ICPSR’s Terms of Use researchers obtaining MIDUS data via ICPSR or the MIDUS Portal are not allowed to redistribute that data. Researchers who are required to share data sources used in their particular analysis can refer to the specific MIDUS datasets and documentation published at ICPSR. Because of intellectual property issues related to the sharing of programming, code, or syntax, MIDUS recommends that any such code used to subset, merge, transform or otherwise analyze publicly-available MIDUS datasets be shared by individual researchers on a case-by-case basis.

For researchers’ convenience, below are links to MIDUS survey field reports and weighting documentation:

MIDUS Portal (Public Access)

In addition to the publicly-available data at ICPSR, the MIDUS Portal offers researchers access to rich searchable variable-level metadata, longitudinal harmonization information, and the ability to download customized datasets and codebooks.

MIDUS Genomics Repository (Restricted Access)

MIDUS has a variety of genetic data for the Core, Refresher, and MIDJA samples. This page explains which data are publicly available via the Portal and which are restricted access via the MIDUS Genomics Repository.

MIDUS Neuroimaging and Psychophysiological Repository (Restricted Access)

MIDUS has neuroimaging and psychophysiological data for the Core and Refresher samples. This page explains which data are publicly available via the Portal and which are restricted access via the MIDUS Neuroscience Repository. We are currently working on making the raw psychophysiological data from MIDUS 2, 3, and Refresher available and will update accordingly when they are.

MIDUS Geocoding Linkage (By Request)

MIDUS does not release any direct geographic identifiers in its publicly available datasets. However, the MIDUS Administrative Core does allow appending external contextual data to MIDUS at different geographic strata without divulging actual location. For more details about this process, please review this README.

MIDUS-CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) linked data (By Request)

MIDUS has CMS-linked data for decedents in the Core sample. This page provides description of available data and will provide guidelines for requesting access to the data once available.

MIDUS Refresher ARTS Survey (By Request)

The Arts project surveyed 2,444 members of the MIDUS Refresher National and Milwaukee samples via a mailed Self-Administered Questionnaire (SAQ) to measure their participation in cultural, leisure and hobby activities during the previous 12-month period (Data collected between May 2021 and February 2022). Please review this guideline if you are interested in accessing the ART survey data.