Your approved dbGaP project may have data from multiple studies when the approval covers a grouped or multi-study structure. That can happen in three cases:  

• Multiple independent studies: The project was approved for more than one separate dbGaP study.  
• A parent study with substudies: dbGaP calls this a “parent-child” study. Approval to the parent study also provides access to data from its child studies under different accessions.  
• A dbGaP Collection: This is a virtual grouping of studies or parts of studies (specific consent or consents), created to streamline access across related dbGaP studies. 

To filter your approved file list by study and other attributes (See Figure 1.):  

1. In the “Filters list” section (A), select Study Accession or Study PHS.  
2. A list of accessions displays in the Study Accession list (B). Select the desired accessions from the list. 
3. The “Found Items” table is filtered to only show the files associated with the selected study accessions. Select the files you want to download (C). 
4. Click the activated Cart file button (D) to download the cart file. The cart file contains only a list of the selected files. It does not contain the actual data files. 

To download the data with the cart file and your project key as input, see the dbGaP Download Guide. 

Figure 1. dbGaP File Selector page displaying selected filters, study accessions, files, and Cart file button 

NOTE: Do not click the magnifying glass to search with study accession (Figure 2.). This will take you out of the authorized access context and disable the “Cart file” button.  

Figure 2. The Search icon in top menu bar searches the public metadata external to your approved dbGaP project, where downloading is not authorized.