Co-Directors: Mary E. Thompson, PhD, Changbao Wu, PhD, University of Waterloo (Canada)

The Data Management Core (DMC) is designed to support survey research and analytical services to all Projects and Cores represented in this P01.

The Data Management Core has the following specific aims:

1. Survey design, administration, and management including communication with survey firms to ensure uniformity of protocols, programming and testing of surveys, and hosting if needed.
2. Survey data processing and production including data cleaning, data checks, construction of weights using external population control information, and computation of derived variables.
3. Management of a secure data repository and data sharing allowing researchers to access data; assisting with access to data from other sources.
4. Data analysis advice and technical assistance, ensuring that data collected provide useful input to substantive research questions; theoretical and simulation studies; consultation on research design, data collection methods, preparation of and reviewing analysis plans, and conducting analyses for papers and reports; leading a Data Working Group.
5. Tracking and coding tobacco control policies in the seven participating countries to ensure timely and uniform classification of policies that will support policy evaluations.

The diversity of research designs and number of collection sites require a core service to help ensure the integrity and synergy of these projects and the quality of the data. the work of the DMC is vital to the realization of Aim 2 of the P01, to contribute to the development of methods for monitoring response to the evolving nicotine product landscape and associated policies. The DMC includes experts in survey sampling, biostatistics and research methods who have extensive backgrounds in research on health behavior and the use of tobacco and its substitutes, as well as data analysts and experts on questionnaire design and databases.