Overview Why We Evaluate Types of Stages Hiring an External
Evaluator Managing an The confidentiality plan, usually included
as part of the overall data collection plan, details the steps
that will be taken to ensure that the data, once collected, are
not shared inappropriately. Social science evaluation often
involves matters that may be personally sensitive. Mental health
and substance abuse intervention studies, for example, may
require the collection of information about participants'
history with mental health or substance use problems, the extent
of their problems, as well as information about their families
and spouses. In most research, assuring confidentiality is only
a matter of following some routine practices: substituting codes
for identifiers, removing face sheets (containing such items as
names and addresses) from survey instruments containing data,
properly disposing of computer sheets and other papers, limiting
access to identified data, impressing on the research staff the
importance of conf