Research Inquiries
We support and encourage research that helps students and improves understanding of admissions.
CycleTrack welcomes inquiries from researchers, schools and nonprofit organizations about responsible use of CycleTrack and historical MDApplicants data. Contact us before collecting data or beginning a project that requires access or permission.
Email [email protected] from your institutional address when available. Please include:
- Your name, institution or organization, role, principal investigator or faculty supervisor, and contact information.
- A short protocol describing the research question, educational or public benefit, methods, intended publications and project dates.
- The data source, fields, years, population and level of detail requested. Explain why public school summaries are insufficient, if you need additional data.
- Your institution's IRB or research ethics determination, where applicable: approval, exemption, or a documented determination that the work is not human subjects research. Include the protocol reference and applicable consent or waiver requirements. If review is pending, tell us its status.
- A data management plan covering authorized team members, secure storage, access controls, proposed linkages, disclosure controls, retention and deletion.
- Funding, commercial involvement and relevant conflicts of interest.
Responsible access and review
Your institution is responsible for determining applicable ethics review and legal requirements. Not every project requires full IRB approval. Public availability alone does not establish that a proposed use is appropriate or that permission has been granted.
We review requests for scientific merit, feasibility, privacy, consent and original visibility restrictions, and consistency with our Privacy Policy. We prioritize aggregated or appropriately de-identified information and the minimum data needed. An inquiry or institutional approval does not guarantee access. Do not send applicant records, identifiers, credentials or other sensitive information with an initial inquiry.
Before any approved access, we will confirm the permitted dataset, purpose, users, methods and duration in writing. A data use agreement may be required, including restrictions on re-identification, participant contact, onward sharing, linkage, security, retention and publication of small groups. Additional consent or institutional review may be needed. Changes to an approved project require further written approval.
Research permission, not scraping
We do not permit scraping or automated extraction without prior written authorization. A research, educational or nonprofit purpose does not itself authorize automated collection, bulk downloading or circumvention of access controls. Use the inquiry process to discuss an approved method of access. See our automated access terms.
Using the results responsibly
CycleTrack and MDApplicants reports are self-reported, incomplete and subject to selection bias. They are not official school statistics or school acceptance rates. Historical MCAT scales and submission years require care in analysis. Approved publications should acknowledge their source, explain these limitations and use disclosure controls appropriate to the study.
Institutional review guidance: HHS human subjects research decision charts. Applicable institutional policies and laws govern each project.