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All Outputs (124)

Using the five safes to structure economic evaluations of data governance (2024)
Journal Article
Ritchie, F., & Whittard, D. (in press). Using the five safes to structure economic evaluations of data governance. Data & Policy,

As the world has become more digitally-dependent, questions of data governance such as ethics, institutional arrangements and statistical protection measures have increased in significance. Understanding the economic contribution of investments in da... Read More about Using the five safes to structure economic evaluations of data governance.

The inadvertently revealing statistic: A systemic gap in statistical training? (2024)
Journal Article
Derrick, B., Green, E., Ritchie, F., Smith, J., & White, P. (2024). The inadvertently revealing statistic: A systemic gap in statistical training?. Significance, 21(1), 24-27. https://doi.org/10.1093/jrssig/qmae009

While concerns around data privacy are well-known, there's a lack of awareness and training when it comes to the confidentiality risk of published statistics, argue Ben Derrick, Elizabeth Green, Felix Ritchie, Jim Smith, Paul White

Machine learning models in trusted research environments - Understanding operational risks (2023)
Journal Article
Ritchie, F., Tilbrook, A., Cole, C., Jefferson, E., Krueger, S., Mansouri-Benssassi, E., …Smith, J. (2023). Machine learning models in trusted research environments - Understanding operational risks. International Journal of Population Data Science, 8(1), Article 2165. https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v8i1.2165

IntroductionTrusted research environments (TREs) provide secure access to very sensitive data for research. All TREs operate manual checks on outputs to ensure there is no residual disclosure risk. Machine learning (ML) models require very large amou... Read More about Machine learning models in trusted research environments - Understanding operational risks.

The present and future of the Five Safes framework (2023)
Journal Article
Green, E., & Ritchie, F. (2023). The present and future of the Five Safes framework. Journal of Privacy and Confidentiality, 13(2), https://doi.org/10.29012/jpc.831

The Five Safes has become the default framework for confidential data governance across multiple sectors and countries. Since its inception in 2003, the approach has influenced data management in many ways, particularly in the public sector. As it ha... Read More about The present and future of the Five Safes framework.

Using pedagogical and psychological insights to train analysts using confidential data (2023)
Journal Article
Green, E., & Ritchie, F. (2023). Using pedagogical and psychological insights to train analysts using confidential data. Journal of Privacy and Confidentiality, 13(2), https://doi.org/10.29012/jpc.842

With researchers increasingly gaining access to confidentiality data through restricted environments, interest has grown in the training of those researchers to protect confidentiality and to use the secure facility effectively. Researcher training,... Read More about Using pedagogical and psychological insights to train analysts using confidential data.

Research data governance in low-and middle-income countries (2023)
Report
Ferrer Breda, P., Green, E., Kendal, C., & Ritchie, F. (2023). Research data governance in low-and middle-income countries. Bristol: UWE

Research and policy development on the governance of confidential research data is dominated by the work of academics and government agencies based in high-income countries (HICs). This leaves three quarters of the world’s population faced with a cor... Read More about Research data governance in low-and middle-income countries.

Disclosure control issues in complex medical data (2023)
Presentation / Conference
Green, E., Ritchie, F., Smith, J., Western, D., & White, P. (2023, September). Disclosure control issues in complex medical data. Paper presented at UNECE/Eurostat Expert Group on Statisticial Data Confidentiality, Wiesbaden

The covid19 pandemic assisted the acceleration of routine access to medical records for research. In the UK platforms including OpenSafely and NHSDigital, alongside emerging hospital trust based Trusted Research Environments (TREs), demonstrate the u... Read More about Disclosure control issues in complex medical data.

SACRO: Semi-Automated Checking Of Research Outputs (2023)
Presentation / Conference
Smith, J., Preen, R., Albashir, M., Ritchie, F., Green, E., Davy, S., …Bacon, S. (2023, September). SACRO: Semi-Automated Checking Of Research Outputs. Paper presented at UNECE Expert meeting on Statistical Data Confidentiality, Wiesbaden, Germany

Output checking can require significant resources, acting as a barrier to scaling up the research use of confidential data. We report on a project, SACRO, that is developing a general-purpose, semi-automatic output checking systems that works across... Read More about SACRO: Semi-Automated Checking Of Research Outputs.

Research data governance in low- and middle-income countries (2023)
Presentation / Conference
Ferrer Breda, P., Green, E., & Ritchie, F. (2023, September). Research data governance in low- and middle-income countries. Paper presented at UNECE/Eurostat Expert Group on Statisticial Data Confidentiality, Wiesbaden

Research and policy development on the governance of confidential research data is dominated by the work of academics and government agencies based in high-income countries (HICs). This leaves three quarters of the world’s population faced with a cor... Read More about Research data governance in low- and middle-income countries.

Towards a comprehensive theory and practice of output SDC (2023)
Presentation / Conference
Derrick, B., Green, E., Ritchie, F., & White, P. (2023, September). Towards a comprehensive theory and practice of output SDC. Paper presented at UNECE/Eurostat Expert Group on Statisticial Data Confidentiality, Wiesbaden

In 2000, the statistical disclosure control of outputs (OSDC) was largely limited to models of table protection developed by and intended for national statistical institutes (NSIs), as a particular branch of general SDC theory. However, in this centu... Read More about Towards a comprehensive theory and practice of output SDC.

The perils of pre-filling: Lessons from the UK's Annual Survey of Hours and Earning microdata (2023)
Journal Article
Whittard, D., Ritchie, F., Phan, V., Bryson, A., Forth, J., Stokes, L., & Singleton, C. (2023). The perils of pre-filling: Lessons from the UK's Annual Survey of Hours and Earning microdata. Statistical Journal of the IAOS, 39(3), 661-677. https://doi.org/10.3233/SJI-230013

The role of the National Statistical Institution (NSI) is changing, with many now making microdata available to researchers through secure research environments This provides NSIs with an opportunity to benefit from the methodological input from rese... Read More about The perils of pre-filling: Lessons from the UK's Annual Survey of Hours and Earning microdata.

Disclosure control of machine learning models from trusted research environments (TRE): New challenges and opportunities (2023)
Journal Article
Mansouri-Benssassi, E., Rogers, S., Reel, S., Malone, M., Smith, J., Ritchie, F., & Jefferson, E. (2023). Disclosure control of machine learning models from trusted research environments (TRE): New challenges and opportunities. Heliyon, 9(4), Article e15143. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e15143

Introduction: Artificial intelligence (AI) applications in healthcare and medicine have increased in recent years. To enable access to personal data, Trusted Research Environments (TREs) (otherwise known as Safe Havens) provide safe and secure enviro... Read More about Disclosure control of machine learning models from trusted research environments (TRE): New challenges and opportunities.

Data use externatilies: Report to department for digital, culture, media and sport by Belmana with the University of the West of England (2022)
Report
Vaze, P., Ioramshvili, C., Whittard, D., & Ritchie, F. (2022). Data use externatilies: Report to department for digital, culture, media and sport by Belmana with the University of the West of England. https://www.gov.uk: Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport

This study was commissioned by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport to: ● Identify the likely positive and negative externalities of data use (that is, the wider social impacts of data use) and ● Provide an assessment of the viabili... Read More about Data use externatilies: Report to department for digital, culture, media and sport by Belmana with the University of the West of England.

Frameworks, principles, and accreditation: Making data governance work (2022)
Presentation / Conference
Ritchie, F. (2022, November). Frameworks, principles, and accreditation: Making data governance work. Presented at RSS Data Ethics and Governance – origins, progress and priorities, London

Presentation to the Royal Statistical Society Data Ethics Section, covering the origins and development of the Five Safes, the EDRU approach to problems-solving, principles-based regulation, and how these all need to work together to achieve effectiv... Read More about Frameworks, principles, and accreditation: Making data governance work.

Can we identify students in ASHE? (2022)
Working Paper
Phan, V., Ritchie, F., Whittard, D., Stokes, L., Forth, J., & Bryson, A. Can we identify students in ASHE?

ASHE is a key dataset in the UK, the only one which allows long-term analysis of flows in labour market status and earnings, and hence vitally important in the understanding of low pay and wage progression. Separating out students from non-student wo... Read More about Can we identify students in ASHE?.

The incidence of low pay is falling in Britain, but why – and can we trust the figures? (2022)
Working Paper
Whittard, D., Phan, V., Stokes, L., Forth, J., Bryson, A., Singleton, C., & Ritchie, F. The incidence of low pay is falling in Britain, but why – and can we trust the figures?

Recent research indicates that the percentage of employees in Britain who are low paid – earning below two-thirds median hourly earnings – has been falling in the last 6-7 years. It points to the increased ‘bite’ of the adult National Minimum Wage (N... Read More about The incidence of low pay is falling in Britain, but why – and can we trust the figures?.

Not just arms and legs: Employer perspectives on student workers (2022)
Journal Article
Whittard, D., Drew, H., & Ritchie, F. (2022). Not just arms and legs: Employer perspectives on student workers. Journal of Education and Work, 35(6-7), 751-765. https://doi.org/10.1080/13639080.2022.2126972

The student workforce plays a substantial part in several low-paying industries such as retail and hospitality, and this has grown over time. However, there has been little recent research. The usual assumption is that students compete successfully w... Read More about Not just arms and legs: Employer perspectives on student workers.

Risk of disclosure when reporting commonly used univariate statistics (2022)
Conference Proceeding
Derrick, B., Green, E., Ritchie, F., & White, P. (2022). Risk of disclosure when reporting commonly used univariate statistics. In Lecture Notes in Computer Science (119-129). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-13945-1_9

When basic or descriptive summary statistics are reported, it may be possible that the entire sample of observations is inadvertently disclosed, or that members within a sample will be able to work out responses of others. Three sets of univariate su... Read More about Risk of disclosure when reporting commonly used univariate statistics.

10 is the safest number that there's ever been (2022)
Journal Article
Ritchie, F. (2022). 10 is the safest number that there's ever been. Transactions on data privacy, 15(2), 109-140

When checking frequency and magnitude tables for disclosure risk, the cell threshold (the minimum number of observations in each cell) is a crucial parameter. In rules-based environments, this is a hard limit on what can or can't be published. In pri... Read More about 10 is the safest number that there's ever been.