Publication Policy

OVERVIEW

The LTC Data Cooperative Publication Policy requires all manuscripts and public-facing materials using Cooperative data to be submitted for review at least five business days prior to journal or third-party submission. This review ensures alignment with the approved research aims, protects resident and facility confidentiality, and ensures compliance with CMS and NIH policies. A table summarizing this policy and review timelines is also provided below:


​Type​What to submit​When to submit
​Manuscript or book excerpt​Full draft, including references 5 days prior to submission to journal/publisher​
​Abstract to conference poster, podium, or panel presentation​Abstract​Concurrent with submission to conference
​Presentation materials​Full draft, including references​5 days prior to event


GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS

This document represents the Long-Term Care (LTC) Data Cooperative policy for the submission and review of presentations to any symposia, academic conferences, national, international or regional professional meeting and of publications (e.g. journal articles, reports, book chapters, etc.), resulting from work utilizing data from the LTC Data Cooperative. If an approved researcher has any other public-facing materials that include mention of the work utilizing data from the LTC Data Cooperative, please email LTCDataCooperative@AHCA.org before distributing.

All publications and presentation materials must be submitted for review to the Publications Committee prior to submission to a journal or third party, to ensure that:

  1. The publication or presentation material must only present results that address the aims of the approved application that are incorporated into the executed Data Use Agreement (DUA), and not present results derived from LTC Data Cooperative data that address objectives or questions beyond those clearly stated and approved. See “REQUESTING APPROVAL FOR RELATED ANALYSES".
  2. The publication or presentation material does not inadvertently provide information that could identify either an individual resident, organization, facility, or provider.
  3. The publication or presentation material adheres to CMS’s current cell size suppression policy. See “CELL SIZE SUPPRESSION POLICY.”
  4. The publication or presentation material must include the required language acknowledging use of this data resource. See “ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF SUPPORT”.


ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF SUPPORT

All manuscripts and presentations utilizing data from the LTC Data Cooperative require the following references:

Long-Term Care Data Cooperative Data sponsored by the National Institute on Aging (U54AG063546). Available at www.ltcdatacooperative.org. https://doi.org/10.26300/0zx9-3e94.

PROCEDURE FOR SUBMISSION AND REVIEW OF PUBLICATIONS

  1. All publications (manuscripts, book chapters, reports, etc) must be submitted for review to the Publications Committee prior to submission to a journal or third party. Publications may be sent via email toLTCDataCooperative@AHCA.org with the subject line, “Review Requested.” Allow five business days for review. Expedited review is possible upon request but is not guaranteed.
  2. The pre-publication review is conducted to assure:
    • publication adheres to data confidentiality and cell sizes, and
    • that the manuscript aligns with the aims of the approved application that are incorporated into the executed DUA. If the proposed manuscript describes results beyond the approved aims, please refer to the section titled “Requesting Approval for Related Analyses.”
  3. Upon Acceptance to a journal or third party, the final accepted manuscript and publication information should be sent via email to LTCDataCooperative@AHCA.org with the subject line, “Article Accepted.”


JOURNAL ARTICLES

For NIH-funded studies, the lead author is required to ensure the article is deposited to PubMed Central in compliance with the NIH Public Access Policy and linked to NIH Grant Award U54AG063546.


PROCEDURE FOR SUBMISSION AND REVIEW OF ABSTRACTS AND PRESENTATIONS

Abstracts
All abstracts submitted to symposia, national, international or regional professional meetings, or academic conferences, must simultaneously be submitted to the Publications Committee (via email to LTCDataCooperative@AHCA.org with the subject line, “Review Requested”). Abstracts do not require approval prior to conference submission.

The abstract review is conducted to ensure:

  • that the abstract aligns with the aims of the approved application that are incorporated into the executed DUA. Researchers are prohibited from presenting results beyond the research objective or research question as stated in the approved application incorporated into the approved DUA. If the proposed presentation as described in the abstract describes results beyond the approved aims, please refer to the section titled “Requesting Approval for Related Analyses.” 
Presentations
If the researcher is invited to present on the basis of the submitted abstract, all presentation materials must be submitted to the Publications Committee at least five business days prior to the presentation. Presentation materials may be sent via email to LTCDataCooperative@AHCA.org with the subject line, “Review Requested.” Allow five business days for review. Expedited review is possible upon request but is not guaranteed.

The pre-presentation review is conducted to ensure:
  • presentation materials adhere to data confidentiality and cell sizes, and
  • that the presentation materials align with the aims of the approved application that are incorporated into the executed DUA. If the proposed presentation describes results beyond the approved aims, please refer to the section titled “Requesting Approval for Related Analyses.”

CELL SIZE SUPPRESSION POLICY

The LTC Data Cooperative publication policy complies with the CMS cell size suppression policy , which prohibits reporting any cell containing a value between 1 and 10 if it represents a count of individuals, services, diagnoses, or procedures. This includes any number that could be directly stated or derived from other data in tables, figures, or narrative text, in order to protect the confidentiality of residents and facilities.

Exceptions may be made for studies using EHR data only with consented individuals. For questions, please email LTCDataCooperative@AHCA.org.

REQUESTING APPROVAL FOR RELATED ANALYSES

If you are interested in publishing results from analyses that are not explicitly described or implicitly implied in your approved aims, please contact us at LTCDataCooperative@AHCA.org to discuss. Approval depends on the scope of the request. If the analyses support your original aims and are consistent with the protocol you submitted for review by your Institutional Review Board, we will ask you to complete a form that would be used in getting additional approval. If the analyses are outside of the purpose of your originally-approved aims, you will need to submit a new application for use of the data.

CONTACT

Please send all inquiries to LTCDataCooperative@AHCA.org . All requests will receive a response within 24-48 hours.