Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 68 Page 69 Page 70 Page 71 Page 72 Page 73 Page 74 Page 75 Page 76 Page 77 Page 78 Page 79 Page 80 Page 81 Page 82 Page 83 Page 84 Page 85 Page 86 Page 87 Page 88 Page 89 Page 90 Page 91 Page 92 Page 93 Page 94 Page 95 Page 96 Page 97 Page 98 Page 99 Page 100 Page 101 Page 102 Page 103 Page 104 Page 105 Page 106 Page 107 Page 108INTRODUCTION 15 Expanding Access and Use of the Data The first mission of the HRS is to collect high val- ue data on aging. The second mission is to share it with the public. The HRS places a premium on early and open access to data while implementing state-of-the-art data security measures to protect confidentiality. There are three levels of data security. The vast majority of the data are public data available to all registered users. Sensitive health data, like biomarkers and information on prescription drugs, require an extra step in registration. Most of the information from administrative linkages is restricted data and requires submission of a separate licensing agreement, which ensures confidentiality but limits accessibility. For those who do not meet the requirements of the licensing agreement, the HRS has always maintained a secure data enclave on site at the Institute for Social Research. To increase accessibility to these data, which are especially valuable for policy analysis, the HRS has now created a virtual desktop infrastructure, which allows users to work with some of the re- stricted data through fully secure remote desktop connection to the enclave. Another major asset that widens access to a broader array of potential users is the RAND versions of HRS data. Researchers at the RAND Corporation have created a user-friendly version of much of the HRS public data. Derived variables covering a broad, though not complete, range of measures have been constructed and named consistently across waves. While the RAND contribution is a good starting place for new users, even seasoned users continue to make use of derived variables, such as total household income and wealth, which are very time-con- suming to create. Other contributions include user-friendly versions of CAMS as well as income and wealth imputations (which help fill in missing information). RAND has also created a family data file that contains a cleaned, processed, and streamlined collection of variables related to the respondent’s family including a subset of avail- able characteristics of all participant and spouse children, children-in-law, and grandchildren. For those interested in conducting compar- ative research using the HRS sister studies, the Gateway to Global Aging Data (G2G) is another useful resource created and maintained by re- searchers at the University of Southern California. The G2G site (g2aging.org) offers a digital library of survey questions, a search engine for finding comparable questions across surveys, and identi- cally defined variables for cross-country analysis. Impact The HRS exists to support research on aging and every metric suggests it continues to grow in its impact. Annual website visits have climbed from 91,063 to 286,815 between 2006 and 2015. Annual data product downloads increased from 18,805 to 46,638 over that period. User registrations per year have gone from 1,248 to 2,565, and the total number of registered users now stands at 24,798. Annual peer-reviewed journal publications broke 100 for the first time in 2009 and were at 190 in 2015. The total now stands at over 1,800, and publications of all kinds (including working papers) are nearing 3,500. A public resource like the HRS is especially valuable in the training of new researchers. The HRS has been used in 442 doctoral dissertations. Many of those new scholars would not have done research in aging without the availability of the HRS. Figure A-5 shows the growth in the number of HRS publications. The HRS exists to support research on aging and every metric suggests it continues to grow in its impact.