Contributing Data
Sharing your social contact data can make it accessible to a wider research community and support further research on human mixing and infectious disease transmission.
How to contribute
The contribution process is straightforward. You can also contact us before formatting your data if you have questions.
Preparation
Use the data formatting guidelines to organise your dataset and prepare the required documentation.
Contact
Contact us when your dataset is ready, or get in touch first if you would like to discuss your data or the contribution process.
Review
The submission is checked against the formatting guidelines, and contributors are contacted if anything needs clarification.
Data published
Following review and approval, the dataset is uploaded to Zenodo and added to the Social contact data repository.
Listing
The dataset is listed on the Data page with appropriate attribution to the study and data contributors.
Why use a common format?
Social contact studies collect similar types of information in different ways. A common format makes these datasets easier to discover, understand, and reuse while preserving the information collected by each study.
Discover
Researchers can more easily see what information a dataset contains and identify data relevant to their research.
Understand
Consistent organisation and documentation make datasets easier to interpret and work with.
Reuse
A common structure makes it easier to work across studies and use contact data in infectious disease transmission research.
Data formatting guidelines
The guidelines explain how to organise your files and prepare your dataset for contribution to the Social contact data repository.
Social contact data format
The document provides the detailed specifications for the common data structure, file organisation, naming conventions, and variables used when preparing a contribution.