Abstract: The present invention is a research picture archiving and communication system including a clinical subsystem, a de-identified image database, and a de-identification subsystem. The clinical subsystem connects to a clinical picture archiving and communication system containing image data including metadata associated with personal information. The clinical subsystem includes an image data editor for de-identifying image data by deleting or altering the personal information in the image data according to instructions specified in a de-identification script. The de-identification subsystem includes an image metadata database and runs an edit script generator that can be used by a user to generate a de-identification script based on metadata stored in the image metadata database, without access to the associated image data.