Use of Q-Notes
The CCQDER and NCHS have decided to allow public use of Q-Notes for researchers to conduct their question evaluation projects and qualitative research studies. Public use of Q-Notes will:
- Support external researchers conducting cognitive interviewing and other types of evaluation projects
- Gather feedback from additional users about Q-Notes
- Determine enhancements for the system to be used by a wider audience
Q-Notes, is a US government information system, which supports the structured collection and analysis of cognitive interview data and serves as an audit trail tracing individual interviews to study findings.
Q-Notes is offered as a service to researchers, and NCHS makes no claims, promises, or guarantees about the accuracy, completeness, or adequacy of the contents of this site, and expressly disclaims liability for errors and omissions in the contents of this site.
Unless otherwise requested, data entered into Q-Notes will be maintained for a maximum of ten years.
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Agreement and Rules to not enter any PII
No personally identifiable information (PII) about a respondent is to be added to Q-Notes.
Personally Identifiable Information, or PII, refers to information that can be used to identify, locate, or
contact individuals or establishments, or reveal the characteristics or other details about them. Respondents are
individuals reporting information about themselves or other persons. Respondents must be able to trust that the
information they provide will be treated with respect and will not put them at risk.
Examples of PII:
- Respondent names (first or last)Respondent dates of birth
- Respondent social security numbers
- Respondent addresses
- Respondent email addresses
- Respondent telephone numbers
- Information that can distinguish a respondent’s identity either alone or when combined with other information such as uncommon race, ethnicity, extreme age, unusual occupation.
Q-Notes provides the ability for researchers to enter free text data. It is the researcher’s responsibility to ensure that no direct or indirect PII is entered into any of these fields.
Researchers who use Q-Notes for their projects are fully responsible for informing, maintaining, and protecting the data of any study participants. Researchers should abide by their standards and guidelines for their research projects, which is outside the scope of Q-Notes.
Due to the importance of maintaining confidentiality, projects may be examined to ensure that no personal identifiable information appear in Q-Notes. In this regard, cognitive interview notes cannot be considered confidential. However, access to your project will be used solely to ensure that no identifiable information is contained in the Q-Notes system. In no way will the Q-Notes manager scrutinize, use or cite information from your project unless otherwise requested. Q-Notes system privileges will be revoked if personal identifiable information is used.
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Technical Information and FAQs
Where is data stored?
All data is currently stored on the CDC Technical Infrastructure located in the US.
Who has access to my data?
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Users are able to control access to their project data to members of their team.
- The Q-Notes administration team has access to all Q-Notes data, and will access only for maintenance and support purposes.
- CDC IT Support team manages all the servers and technology infrastructure, and can access data in the backend, but will always inform the Q-Notes team before accessing any system data.
How can I request or delete my data?
Users can email qnotes@cdc.gov with your request for data or deletion of data. The team will then work to provide you with an export or to remove your account.
What happens in the case of a security breach ?
Q-Notes is maintained on the CDC Network infrastructure behind the CDC firewall, and follows guidelines, standards and consistent monitoring to protect the information and systems. If there is a security breach, the CDC incident response team will inform the Q-Notes administration team of the breach along with any pertinent details.
The Q-Notes team will then inform users by email of the breach and if any data was compromised, viewed or lost.
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External Service Providers
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We want to inform users of this Service that these third parties do not have access to their Personal Information listed above. They may have access to log data. The reason is to perform the tasks assigned to them on our behalf. However, they are obligated not to disclose or use the information for any other purpose.
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