3.2 Getting Access

It is important to read access to these different data sources as early as possible. In some cases the complete documentation does not exist, but where it does it is good to review the documentation to understand how these databases function and any nuances in them. Access can be granted by placing a ticket with IT (via help@wfu.edu).

In the email sent to IT, it is important to specify that you are the Data Scientist for Institutional Research and that you only need read access to the databases. Additionally, it is important to copy all of the data owners in the request so that they know that access is authorized. While you will often request data directly from data stewards, it is important to have direct access because you don’t know what you don’t know (e.g. by seeing a different field in the database you may ask a different research question).