FAQ Listing

A CODIS hit may involve the linking of crimes to each other and/or to persons convicted of a crime or arrestees. The system’s hits are tracked as either an offender hit (where the identity of a potential suspect is generated) or as a forensic hit (where the DNA profiles obtained from two or more crime scenes are linked but the source of these profiles remains unknown (FBI, 2019)).

Grantees who record zero for measures D-F or J-L did not use their Federal award money for one or more of the following activities: overtime for existing scientists to analyze forensic biology/DNA cases or database samples, DNA testing supplies for forensic biology/DNA cases or database samples, outsourcing forensic biology/DNA cases or database samples, or hiring and supporting additional scientists whose main activity was analyzing forensic biology/DNA cases or database samples. If grantees are using their Federal award money for one or more of the above activities, they should have data to report for cases analyzed, database samples analyzed, profiles uploaded from forensic cases and database samples, and hits.

The award period for CEBR awards are two years. Some grantees receive extensions on their awards for many different reasons, but the longest extension an award can receive is one year, for a total award period of three years.

Data archiving allows NIJ to ensure the preservation, availability, and transparency of data collected through its grant funded research projects. It supports the discovery, reuse, reproduction, replication, and extension of funded studies by other scientists.

See Data Archiving.

NIJ requires grant applicants to submit a Data Archiving Plan (DAP) with their application that describes how study data will be documented, managed, and prepared for archiving, and where the data will be archived at project completion.

See Data Archiving Plan.

The National Archive of Criminal Justice Data (NACJD) is NIJ’s principal data repository. NACJD primarily hosts social and behavioral science data in plain text and statistical software file formats. NIJ recognizes that data from the natural sciences and engineering may not be appropriate in file type or field of study for archiving at NACJD. To fulfill their data archiving requirement and maximize the visibility of this data to the relevant communities, NIJ encourages these researchers to archive their data at a repository appropriate to their field of study.

See Data Submission at NACJD.

NIJ and other OJP program offices have partnered with NACJD to process, archive, and disseminate a diverse set of criminal and juvenile justice data sets. NACJD is part of the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) which maintains an extensive archive of data to support research and knowledge building in the social and behavioral sciences. NIJ grant recipients with an approved DAP that specifies NACJD as the appropriate data repository should review:

• Data Submission at NACJD
• NACJD submission guidelines

NIJ is the leading federal funder of forensic science research and development, which includes the application of fields as diverse as chemistry, biology, physics, computer science, and engineering to matters of law. Much data in the natural sciences and engineering are out of scope for NACJD. NIJ has identified some resources that may be useful in identifying an appropriate data repository for archiving. Inclusion of a resource does not imply endorsement by NIJ.

See Alternate Data Repositories.