An answer when someone asks who had the data
Research offices, ethics committees and data stewards carry the risk when restricted data is shared. Emperix is built so that risk is documented rather than assumed.
Every application is recorded with the purpose stated and the institution named. Every decision is recorded with who made it, when, and any reason they gave. Every withdrawal is recorded. Declined applications are kept as well as approved ones, because who was refused is part of the picture.
The record cannot be edited or deleted, including by administrators. An audit trail that the wrong person can quietly amend is not an audit trail, so the ability to amend it does not exist.
Data governed by an agreement carries that agreement's exact text against each access. When a review asks what a particular researcher agreed to in 2026, the answer is retrievable rather than reconstructed.
ACCESS LOG
Postdoctoral researcher, public university
Purpose: re-analysis of fever duration by age band
APPROVED 1 year · expires 14 Mar 2027
Analyst, private company
Purpose: product development
DECLINED outside permitted use
PhD candidate, public university
WITHDRAWN by the depositor
Example record. It shows the fields a depositor completes and the log that builds up behind them. It is not a real dataset, and the people in it are not real.
The life of a grant
Every state a grant passes through is on the record
A named person states a purpose and an institution.
You grant it, for a term you choose.
Then either
The term runs down. No renewal is automatic.
The next download attempt fails, immediately.
What is recorded
- Applications
- The purpose stated, the institution named, the dataset version applied for, and the exact agreement text accepted.
- Decisions
- Who approved or declined, when, and any note they gave. Declines are kept alongside approvals.
- Terms of the grant
- How long access runs and when it expired on its own, without anyone having to remember.
- Withdrawals
- When access was revoked, and by whom. The original access stays in the record; what changes is what can still be read.
Bring it to your research office
We would rather answer a specific question about your arrangement than send you a brochure.