Access Data

There has been long standing debate about prefixes for multiples of bytes. We have chosen to utilize the standard supported by the International System of Units (SI) where 1 gigabyte (GB) = 10⁹ bytes or 1 megabyte (MB) = 10⁶ bytes. This convention is also supported by the IEEE, EU, NIST, and the International System of Quantities. Where appropriate, we utilize the IEEE 1541 recommendations for binary representation where 1024³ bytes = 1 gibibyte (GiB) or 1024² bytes = 1 mebibyte (MiB).

Recurrent data releases allow the GDC to version the data and allow users to reference the GDC version number in publications. GDC currently generates releases as needed, with a release every 2-3 months as a goal.

The GDC validates genomic data (BAM files) using FASTQC and Picard. For additional details, please visit: GDC Data Harmonization.

GDC authentication tokens remain valid for 30 days.

The GDC Data Transfer Tool uses sequential read/write for each file segment that is being transferred. By default, the tool executes multipart transfers, which results in multiple parallel, sequential read or write operations. To turn off multipart transfers, users can set the number of processes to 1.

The GDC Data Transfer Tool does not offer a setting to limit the bandwidth it uses.

The GDC Data Transfer Tool is recommended for transferring large datasets to or from GDC. For additional details, please visit the GDC Data Transfer Tool User’s Guide.

System requirements for using the GDC Data Transfer Tool are available on the GDC Data Transfer Tool page.  Additional details are in the GDC Data Transfer Tool User's Guide.

Users can perform advanced SQL-like queries using the GDC Data Portal Search interface. Instructions on using the GDC Data Portal Search interface are available in the GDC Data Portal User's Guide.

The GDC provides helpdesk support for data submission and other issues. For information on the GDC helpdesk, please visit GDC Support.