Ensuring Quality
Institutional data are a university resource that may be used and relied upon by many users.
It is important that institutional data be safeguarded to maintain the confidentiality and privacy of personally identifiable information and protected against systematic errors, loss, and security breaches.
Emory policy prohibits all who work with institutional data from knowingly falsifying or fabricating data or destroying or deleting data unless such data are subject to destruction or deletion under an applicable record retention policy.
Defining Data Integrity
Data that meets Emory University's definition of institutional data integrity must be accurate, complete, consistent, reliable, and timely.
| Accurate | Data are free from errors |
| Complete | All values are present |
| Consistent | Data satisfy a set of definitions or constraints that are applied and maintained in the same manner across reports |
| Reliable | Independent custodians or users obtain consistent results when applying the same definitions or constraints |
| Timely | Data are available when required |
Data Validation, Verification, and Security
Building a culture of data integrity and quality with a shared mindset of data governance positions the Emory community to make strategic and operational decisions based on complete, accurate, and reliable information.
Our individual interactions with data can either serve to safeguard our data or impact its integrity and quality. At Emory, we serve as producers and/or consumers of the data we regularly interact with in relation to patients, students, research, general operations, and/or financial information extracted from our data sources.
Procedures and Policies
The 5 Phases of Data Management help validate, verify, and secure data.
People who work with data have established procedures and controls in place to address issues that may arise with the management of university data within their unit.
| Input | Data Entry |
| Extraction | Queries |
| Manipulation | Spreadsheet |
| Storage | Databases |
| Reporting | Internal and External |