National Centre for Research Methods 2014-2019
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Southampton
Department Name: Sch of Economic, Social & Political Sci
Abstract
Social science forms and transforms our understanding of the world we live in, underpins the development, delivery and evaluation of public policy, as well as commercial and business practice, and informs national and international debate on matters of social, economic and political controversy. Research evidence from the social sciences permeates our lives, from the production, analysis and interpretation of economic indicators, through documenting stability and change in social attitudes, to understanding the factors which lead to educational attainment, community cohesion, national well-being, and inter-state conflict, to select just a few pertinent examples. It is essential, therefore, that social scientific research is as robust as that produced in any other area of scientific endeavour, and that research carried out under the banner of social science is of the highest possible standard in the academic sector and beyond. While the quality of research depends on a number of different factors, the most important is methodology; the ways in which social scientists collect, analyse and interpret social and economic data.
The proposed new National Centre for Research Methods (NCRM) will address long-recognised problems relating to under-capacity in the UK social science research community. It will build on the successful programme of work that has already been undertaken in the Centre's first ten years. However, much has changed since NCRM was founded in 2004, including the emergence of new types and volumes of data to be handled, new modes of communication and networking (such as Facebook, and Twitter), as well as new perspectives on data accessibility and the use of various kinds of administrative data (such as tax records and GP patient records) for research purposes. The sorts of questions that social scientists are seeking to address have also changed, reflecting important shifts in the national and global environment. For instance, social scientists are now addressing questions relating to climate change, food security, online behaviour and identity, international terrorism and the costs of higher education, all of which were either low priority or non-existent issues when NCRM was established a decade ago.
The new Centre will be a partnership between three institutions with leading international reputations in undertaking methodological research and training in the social sciences: the Universities of Southampton, Manchester, and Edinburgh. Together the partner institutions will deliver three core activities:
1. A programme of methodological research which will develop innovative ways of collecting and analysing new and traditional forms of social science research data. The programme will comprise a set of inter-related work-packages to be undertaken by the collaborating partners and also a set of commissioned projects to complement and integrate with the Centre's research work-packages.
2. A programme of face-to-face training events in advanced areas of methodological practice, delivered by leading national and international experts at locations which are accessible to social scientists throughout the UK.
3. Develop and expand NCRM's existing heavily used website to incorporate a range of new features and functions, such as tailoring presentation of material to user-specified interests and developing a range of new online resources to enable social scientists to learn about new methods at their own pace and convenience.
The Centre will consult widely with organisations in the public and private sectors to ensure that the work it undertakes is in line with their needs and interests. It will collaborate with leading scholars and institutions from overseas to ensure that the Centre's work meets the highest international standards and to promote its work on the international stage.
The proposed new National Centre for Research Methods (NCRM) will address long-recognised problems relating to under-capacity in the UK social science research community. It will build on the successful programme of work that has already been undertaken in the Centre's first ten years. However, much has changed since NCRM was founded in 2004, including the emergence of new types and volumes of data to be handled, new modes of communication and networking (such as Facebook, and Twitter), as well as new perspectives on data accessibility and the use of various kinds of administrative data (such as tax records and GP patient records) for research purposes. The sorts of questions that social scientists are seeking to address have also changed, reflecting important shifts in the national and global environment. For instance, social scientists are now addressing questions relating to climate change, food security, online behaviour and identity, international terrorism and the costs of higher education, all of which were either low priority or non-existent issues when NCRM was established a decade ago.
The new Centre will be a partnership between three institutions with leading international reputations in undertaking methodological research and training in the social sciences: the Universities of Southampton, Manchester, and Edinburgh. Together the partner institutions will deliver three core activities:
1. A programme of methodological research which will develop innovative ways of collecting and analysing new and traditional forms of social science research data. The programme will comprise a set of inter-related work-packages to be undertaken by the collaborating partners and also a set of commissioned projects to complement and integrate with the Centre's research work-packages.
2. A programme of face-to-face training events in advanced areas of methodological practice, delivered by leading national and international experts at locations which are accessible to social scientists throughout the UK.
3. Develop and expand NCRM's existing heavily used website to incorporate a range of new features and functions, such as tailoring presentation of material to user-specified interests and developing a range of new online resources to enable social scientists to learn about new methods at their own pace and convenience.
The Centre will consult widely with organisations in the public and private sectors to ensure that the work it undertakes is in line with their needs and interests. It will collaborate with leading scholars and institutions from overseas to ensure that the Centre's work meets the highest international standards and to promote its work on the international stage.
Planned Impact
Who will benefit? Social science research is undertaken and commissioned by a broad range of non-academic groups and all stand to benefit from the methodological research development and training resources that will be produced and made available through NCRM in its next stage of funding. This includes researchers working in central and local government and the Office for National Statistics, in public sector organisations such as the NHS, and charitable foundations such as the Wellcome Trust and the Nuffield Foundation, as well as smaller third sector organisations. Researchers in commercial and not-for-profit data collection agencies such as NatCen, TNS-BMRB, GfK-NOP and Ipsos-MORI will benefit from the research developments and training opportunities NCRM will provide, as will researchers in the broader commercial and market research industries.
How will they benefit? Our intention is for the Centre's impact on these non-academic groups to manifest in three primary ways. Firstly, through the Centre's own programme of methodological research (work packages 1 to 6 in case for support). The focus of our research programme has been selected in order to address areas which have previously been identified as being of strategic importance for the broader social science research community by NCRM's own research needs assessments, in the National Data Strategy 2013-2018, and by the 2012 ESRC review of NCRM. Specifically, we expect the work that will be undertaken under the theme of 'complex data with linked and time-dependent structures' to be of use to a broad range of non-academic user groups who are attempting to find suitable ways for managing and analysing increasingly large and complex data structures. For instance, the findings of WP1 and WP2 are likely to be of interest to data collection agencies and survey practitioners seeking to maximise fieldwork efficiency and to mitigate nonresponse bias, while WP3 will benefit data collectors and researchers working at the interface of the medical and social sciences. We also expect the findings from our research into the 'pedgagogy of methodological learning' to be of practical use to organisations such as the ESRC, the Nuffield Foundation and Wellcome Trust, who have an interest in building methodological capacity, particularly (though not entirely) in the area of quantitative and statistical methods.
Second, the Centre's commissioned programme of methodological research (which will commence in 2015) will be of additional benefit to non-academic users across all sectors. The more flexible nature of the commissioning process in NCRM's next stage will enable this work programme to respond strategically to emerging need and to reflect the concerns of these non-academic user groups. We will involve key non-academic stakeholders and gate-keepers representing the different sectors in our consultations, assessments and reviews to ensure that the commissioned projects produce outcomes which are of clear benefit to them. Non-academic users will also occupy strategically important roles on the Centre's new Advisory Committees.
Third, the substantial programme of face-to-face short courses and seminars that the Centre will run on an annual basis will enable non-academic researchers to attend high quality training at affordable rates and in accessible locations throughout the UK. NCRM's existing assessments of training needs show that non-academic researchers have particular difficulty in securing time to attend face-to-face training events. We therefore anticipate the Centre's expanded online training resources to be of particular benefit to these groups.
Finally, our research and training programmes will have a positive impact on the general public, albeit indirectly and in the longer term, through the delivery of higher quality research evidence to inform public policy.
How will they benefit? Our intention is for the Centre's impact on these non-academic groups to manifest in three primary ways. Firstly, through the Centre's own programme of methodological research (work packages 1 to 6 in case for support). The focus of our research programme has been selected in order to address areas which have previously been identified as being of strategic importance for the broader social science research community by NCRM's own research needs assessments, in the National Data Strategy 2013-2018, and by the 2012 ESRC review of NCRM. Specifically, we expect the work that will be undertaken under the theme of 'complex data with linked and time-dependent structures' to be of use to a broad range of non-academic user groups who are attempting to find suitable ways for managing and analysing increasingly large and complex data structures. For instance, the findings of WP1 and WP2 are likely to be of interest to data collection agencies and survey practitioners seeking to maximise fieldwork efficiency and to mitigate nonresponse bias, while WP3 will benefit data collectors and researchers working at the interface of the medical and social sciences. We also expect the findings from our research into the 'pedgagogy of methodological learning' to be of practical use to organisations such as the ESRC, the Nuffield Foundation and Wellcome Trust, who have an interest in building methodological capacity, particularly (though not entirely) in the area of quantitative and statistical methods.
Second, the Centre's commissioned programme of methodological research (which will commence in 2015) will be of additional benefit to non-academic users across all sectors. The more flexible nature of the commissioning process in NCRM's next stage will enable this work programme to respond strategically to emerging need and to reflect the concerns of these non-academic user groups. We will involve key non-academic stakeholders and gate-keepers representing the different sectors in our consultations, assessments and reviews to ensure that the commissioned projects produce outcomes which are of clear benefit to them. Non-academic users will also occupy strategically important roles on the Centre's new Advisory Committees.
Third, the substantial programme of face-to-face short courses and seminars that the Centre will run on an annual basis will enable non-academic researchers to attend high quality training at affordable rates and in accessible locations throughout the UK. NCRM's existing assessments of training needs show that non-academic researchers have particular difficulty in securing time to attend face-to-face training events. We therefore anticipate the Centre's expanded online training resources to be of particular benefit to these groups.
Finally, our research and training programmes will have a positive impact on the general public, albeit indirectly and in the longer term, through the delivery of higher quality research evidence to inform public policy.
Organisations
Publications
Schouten B
(2018)
A Bayesian Analysis of Design Parameters in Survey Data Collection
in Journal of Survey Statistics and Methodology
Nind M
(2019)
A conceptual-empirical typology of social science research methods pedagogy
in Research Papers in Education
Nind M
(2019)
A new application for the concept of pedagogical content knowledge: teaching advanced social science research methods
in Oxford Review of Education
Sturgis P.
(2019)
Advances in Questionnaire Design, Development, Evaluation and Testing
Coronado JIC
(2018)
Allostatic Load and Effort-Reward Imbalance: Associations over the Working-Career.
in International journal of environmental research and public health
Williams BD
(2018)
An application of Bayesian measurement invariance to modelling cognition over time in the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing.
in International journal of methods in psychiatric research
Ralston K
(2020)
Anxious women or complacent men? Anxiety of statistics in a sample of UK sociology undergraduates
in International Journal of Social Research Methodology
Edwards R
(2017)
Approaches to democratising qualitative research methods
in Qualitative Research
| Description | NCRM undertook a strategic review of methodological research needs in UK social science. This informed the ESRC's research strategy in research methods for the period 2016-2019. We also undertook an assessment of methodological training need which has informed the Centre's training strategy and fed into ESRC's Doctoral Training strategy. In addition to strategic reviews and assessments, the NCRM research programme comprised 7 inter-related Work Packages. They are now completed, and a number of findings have been produced, which are described in a number of publications and working papers. We have undertaken methodological research in the area of survey methodology which has developed a new method for studying the effects of interviewers on data quality. As part of this research we have developed new metrics for interviewer performance assessment and are in discussions with a leading data collection agency about how they might implement the new methods to monitor and improve interviewer performance. Research has also been undertaken into cost-effectiveness and accuracy of different data collection modes for surveys and of how to make assessments of quality across modes. Surveys are immensely important for government, academic, commercial and voluntary sector organisations and this research will help to improve the way this type of research is done and to also reduce the substantial cost of data collection. The research has been studying interviewer calling patterns and developing new ways of monitoring performance on large scale interviewer surveys. We have also developed models for assessing the effects of interviewers on the length of time it takes respondents to answer questions and how response times are related to characteristics of questions, which can be used to estimate questionnaire length for new surveys. We have been working with a private sector partner to ensure that the work has relevance to actual practice. The UK has been at the cutting edge of recent developments in qualitative longitudinal research (QLR). The goal of QLR is to enable the exploration of complex processes, context and trajectories of social change and continuity. NCRM research has extended and developed secondary analytic practice in working with complex longitudinal data drawing on material from the ESRC Timescapes study. In our work, we developed our analytic strategy using an archaeological metaphor to capture the layered 'scaling down' process of working across multiple sets of qualitative longitudinal data and their waves of data collection. This has involved 1. 'Surface survey' (mapping the scope and nature of the data) 2. A geophysical survey (corpus analysis) 3. Shovel test pits (case analysis across and within the data sets), and 4. Deep excavations. Using the outcomes of our 'surveys' and 'test pits', this has involved a narrowing of our substantive focus to 'arguments' and the development of an associated keyword list. To facilitate our 'geophysical surveys' (see above) we have utilised a range of computerised forms of analysis, including Nvivo, Leximancer and 'R'. To support our work we have completed training in using the CAQDAS package Leximancer, uploading of data set and initial analyses. Data Stewardship Organisations (DSOs) are charged with producing useful data products whilst minimising the risk of disclosure of personal information. Work in this area has traditionally focused on the disclosure risk associated with census and survey data products in the context of other information that an 'intruder' might use to identify persons and households. NCRM research addressed how such disclosure risks must be reconsidered in the rapidly changing linked data environment, in which extensive geographically and temporally referenced data about persons, addresses and households can be combined in analytically powerful ways. Our work in this area has shown, inter alia, that the classical Fellegi-Sunter linkage approach could be extended to cases where there are no key variables. Linkage was performed using Bayes factors generated from a full probability model fitted from labelled training data. However, the method was only shown to be effective (but much more effective than existing approaches) for 1 to 1 matching scenarios with low numbers of record pairs. A further strand of NCRM research addresses the problem that provision of courses in advanced social science research methods is unlikely to ensure that capacity is developed in areas of strategic need without attention to the quality of the pedagogy associated with such courses. Hence our aim is to provide an evidence base in which the call for 'more training' can be translated into knowing the kinds of training that are suited to the particular challenge of advanced methodological learning. We have carried out research on the pedagogy of methodological learning, involving learners and teachers of research methods to understand ways of learning and whether and how these are effective. We find that teachers of methods are developing pedagogic content knowledge that is specific to advanced method teaching. This is characterised by active learning that engages learners in the methods at hand, Learning by Doing to give learners experience of research practice, and reflexivity to help learners understand the different ways in which research problems can be engaged with. Methods teachers teach both with and through data, and respond to the challenges of diverse learners and dynamic and difficult content. Under our strand of methods pedagogy research, we have also looked at the issue of 'stats anxiety', which is to say the extent to which student performance in statistics and quantitative methods in the social sciences is a function of their self-perceptions and identity and their level of anxiety with regard to performance in areas with a maths component, when many consider themselves to be more oriented toward the humanities. In another project, we have looked at changing patterns of data usage in the social sciences to assess the extent to which social scientists are adopting new forms of data such as transactional, administrative, social media and other forms of big data and, concomitantly if there is evidence of a decline in the use of more traditional data forms such as surveys and archival research. We have done this by content analysing journal articles in a sample of journals from across the social science disciplines and comparing this to previous investigations in earlier time periods. |
| Exploitation Route | Our findings have already been used to inform policy for the ESRC. Additionally, our work in the area of survey methodology and polling can be used by survey data collection agencies to monitor and improve interviewer performance and in the methods used by UK pollsters to carry out and report on opinion polls. We are working with the Royal Statistical Society to take forward the work on stats anxiety and with the Office for National Statistics on findings from the work package on disclosure control. |
| Sectors | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Education,Energy,Environment,Government, Democracy and Justice |
| URL | http://www.ncrm.ac.uk/research/ |
| Description | Survey methodological research and analysis of errors in the 2015 General Election opinion polls by Professor Sturgis and colleagues has led to changes in the rules of the British Polling Council and in the procedures used by UK polling firms. It has also influenced the conclusions and recommendations of the House of Lords Select Committee on Political Polling and Digital Media. The research has therefore influenced both opinion polling methodology and the policy-making process in the UK. The work had significant influence on polling research conducted around the EU referendum and the 2019 General Election. The work on survey research and data collection was taken forward in the ESRC-funded project on survey data collection (2021-2023) and has informed the establishment of a survey data collection network (SDC-Net) including practitioners and academics (working across sectors). The work and exchange has influenced the conduct of SDC in practice. The work will shortly be taken forward in a new initiative, the 'Survey data collection methods collaboration'. Professor Edwards' oral evidence on the inadequacy of causal pathways evidence influenced the conclusions and recommendations of the House of Commons Select Committee on Early Intervention, leading them to advise that ACE checklists should not be used to guide support offered to specific individuals. The methodological expertise has therefore influenced the policy-making process. Professor Edwards has provided advice to the cross-Whitehall Government Social Research (GSR) Innovative Research Methods group on innovative approaches to presenting/disseminating qualitative data, and presentation to their seminar series. The methodological research has therefore increased Government Social Research Methods members' capabilities in research methodologies. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2016 |
| Sector | Government, Democracy and Justice |
| Impact Types | Societal,Policy & public services |
| Description | Professor Rosalind Edwards provided advice and information to Government Social Research cross-Whitehall working group on Innovative Research Methods, on innovative approaches to presenting and disseminating qualitative data in the form of phone and email exchanges with Dr. Rebecca Gillespie, Senior Research Officer with the Home Office Analysis and Insight team. |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Contribution to a national consultation/review |
| Title | Pedagogy of methodological learning: Expert panel interviews and methods teacher focus groups |
| Description | Advanced research requires a unique combination of theoretical understanding, procedural knowledge and skills competence; nonetheless, there has been little research about pedagogy associated with this. In the UK, doctoral researchers have learned through an apprenticeship model of supervision, with taught courses and formal training becoming a more recent requirement. Subsequent capacity building has focused on the incorporation of core and advanced training tailored toward the professional and methodological development of researchers. The lack of 'pedagogic culture' i.e. lack of debate, investigation and evaluation regarding how research methods are taught and learned is problematic. Little is understood about how best to respond to the distinctive pedagogical challenges in this field. This research seeks to: • advance an emerging pedagogical culture and content knowledge for social science research methods teaching; • create a typology of pedagogical approaches for social research methods teaching to inform national policy and practice; • develop a coherent theoretical framework for methods teaching to inform national practice. To this end, the project deploys four complementary components: 1) expert panel method, including interviews with a panel of international experts in research methods teaching and follow up focus groups with UK methods teachers; 2) diary methods and longitudinal analysis by and with researchers at different stages of doctoral and post-doctoral research careers about their methods learning experiences; 3) video-stimulated recall and reflection by researchers, teachers and learners in response to specific methods training events; 4) case studies of methodological and pedagogical innovation. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2018 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | We have found encouraging aspects of pedagogical scholarship and increasing attention to the specifics of teaching and learning for particular research methods, approaches or techniques. We have developed methodological tools that will help in the ongoing research and we identify practical messages for methods trainers. This research will substantially advance and stimulate this nascent field, to inform teaching and learning, policy and practice within and beyond the National Centre for Research Methods. |
| URL | http://reshare.ukdataservice.ac.uk/853130/ |
| Description | 8th ESRC Research Methods Festival |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | This biennial Festival aims to engage social scientists across a wide range of disciplines and sectors and at different points in their research careers. This year's Festival themes included methodological innovation, crossing methodological boundaries, analysis of complex data sets, pedagogy of methods and careers and skills development. The Festival programme offered 58 sessions involving almost 200 presentations to stimulate the methodological imagination. We were grateful to our keynote speakers: Professor Nancy Cartwright (Durham University), Professor Donna Mertens (Gallaudet University) and Professor Danny Dorling (University of Oxford) for taking the time to talk at the Festival. Presenters for the main sessions were drawn from across ESRC investments and other distinguished research projects and organisations, and for the first time in its history, RMF18 also included a Methodological Innovation Strand made up of sessions selected via a call for proposals. We were also pleased to be able to showcase NCRM's own in-house and commissioned research. NCRM Work package 1: 'Interviewer effects on response latencies in a face-to-face interview survey using a location scale model' - Patrick Sturgis, Gabriele Durrant, Olga Maslovskaya (NCRM Southampton) and Ian Brunton-Smith (University of Surrey) / 'Do interviewers moderate the effect of monetary incentives on response rates in household interview surveys?' - Eliud Kibuchi, Gabriele Durrant, Patrick Sturgis and Olga Maslovskaya (NCRM Southampton) / 'Response quality in mixed-device online survey: Evidence from the Understanding Society data' - Olga Maslovskaya, Gabriele Durrant and Peter Smith (NCRM Southampton) / 'Uptake and data quality in UK mixed-device online surveys: An experiment in the ONS Online Household Study - Gabriele Durrant, Olga Maslovskaya and Peter Smith (NCRM Southampton) NCRM Work package 2: 'Breadth-and-depth method of working with 'big qualitative data' - Emma Davidson and Lynn Jamieson (NCRM Edinburgh) and Rosalind Edwards and Susie Weller (NCRM Southampton) NCRM Work package 3: 'Compensating for Non-response in Biosocial Research: Simulation Study from a Cross-sectional Analysis' - Dr Tina Hannemann (University of Manchester); 'Life Course Socio-economic Position Effects on Cortisol: Compensating for Missing Biomarker Data' - Ms Georgia Chatzi (University of Manchester); 'Nurse Effects in Biomarker Data Collection in the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing' - Dr Alex Cernat (University of Manchester); 'Who's afraid of giving blood: Does accounting for missing blood data in social surveys make a difference?' - Prof. Tarani Chandola (University of Manchester) NCRM Work package 5: 'Meeting the challenge of diversity among learners: Findings from the Pedagogy of Methodological Learning study' - Melanie Nind (NCRM Southampton); 'Meeting the challenge of teaching research methods online: Findings from the Pedagogy of Methodological Learning study - Debbie Collins (NCRM Southampton); Workshop: 'Planning for meeting the challenges: Making practical use of a typology from the Pedagogy of Methodological Learning study - Melanie Nind and Sarah Lewthwaite (NCRM Southampton) NCRM Work package 6: 'Social Science students and statistics anxiety: a meta analysis and some empirical results' - Victoria Gorton (NCRM Edinburgh), Kevin Ralston (University of York) and Graham Crow (NCRM Edinburgh) NCRM Work Package 7: 'Changing patterns of data use in Social Science journals over time' - Rebekah Luff (NCRM Southampton) Phase II Commissioned Projects - Cernat: 'What is measurement error and how can we estimate it?' - Daniel Oberski (Utrecht University), Correction for measurement errors: how to do it and what is the impact?' - Melanie Revilla (Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona), Multilevel structural equation modeling for longitudinal MTMM data' - Tobias Koch (Leuphana University of Luneburg), The Multi-Trait Multi-Error Approach to Estimating Measurement Error' - Alexandru Cernat (University of Manchester) Phase II Commissioned Projects - Kieft: 'Somatics toolkit for ethnographers' - Eline Kieft (Coventry University) Phase II Commissioned Projects - McCulloch: 'Do participatory visual methods 'give voice'? - Daniel McCulloch (Open University) Phase II Commissioned Projects - Pina-Sanchez: 'Tackling selection bias in sentencing data analysis' - Jose Pina-Sanchez (University of Leeds) and Sara Geneletti (London School of Economics) |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.ncrm.ac.uk/RMF2018/home.php |
| Description | 9th International Conference on Social Science Methodology |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | tbc |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | http://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/sociology/research/rc33-conference |
| Description | @NCRMUK Twitter |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The @NCRMUK Twitter account has 9.544 followers in March 2018 and receives on average 1.8k impressions per day. The average engagement ranges from 0-40 Twitter users. NCRM posts to Twitter automatically every time a new course is online. The NCRM Communication Manager also posts highlights and special advertisements to Twitter 3-5 times a week. We also ask our stakeholders to retweet our posts or tweet for us. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015,2016,2017,2018 |
| URL | https://twitter.com/NCRMUK?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor |
| Description | Autumn School 2017: New Data Horizons |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | In recent years the data landscape has seen significant changes and new developments, featuring innovations in data collection and usage of surveys, the rise of linked data sources, such as the linkage of biosocial data to surveys, and new forms of data such as big data and social media data. Knowledge from social scientists about how to properly use new forms of data to answer social science research questions and statistical tools to accommodate social science problems remains underdeveloped. Such data innovations raise questions on data quality and measurement errors. Yet new data will allow social scientists to examine fundamentally new research questions and creates the potential for substantial breakthroughs. The ESRC National Centre for Research Methods (NCRM) will be holding its 12th residential autumn school in Southampton in November 2017. The topic of this year's autumn school is New Data Horizons and will explore innovations and changes in the data landscape. The autumn school will feature sessions on innovations in surveys, including online survey data collection, data linkage and use of (linked) administrative and census data, social media data and big data, and biosocial data. It will address the potential for answering substantive questions in social science research as well as methodological aspects such as data linkage, modelling of complex data and issues concerning data quality. Day 1 Session 1: Changing nature of and innovations in surveys Patrick Sturgis (University of Southampton) Changing patterns of Social Science data usage Joel Williams (Kantar Public) Innovations in survey research Curtis Jessop (NatCen) Developing the NatCen panel Interactive/discussion session Day 2 Session 2: Data linkage, administrative and census data James Doidge (University College London) Practical aspects and methodological challenges in research using linked data Laura van der Erve (Institute for Fiscal Studies) Using administrative data to investigate graduate earnings and beyond Dave Martin (University of Southampton) Transforming the Census Interactive/Discussion session Session 3: Social media and big data Matthew Williams (Cardiff University) Towards an Ethical Framework for using Social Media Data in Social Research Susan Banducci and Iulia Cioroianu (EXPONet, University of Exeter) Online Data Sources: Linking Old and New, Big and Small Interactive/Discussion session Day 3 Session 4: Biosocial data Michaela Benzeval (University of Essex) Integrating biosocial data (title tbc) Melinda Mills (University of Oxford) Combining Social Science and Molecular Genetic Research Concluding discussion session |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Autumn School on the use of biomarkers in social science research |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | . Aug 31st PM Introduction: Tarani Chandola (NCRM, Manchester) and Meena Kumari (ISER, Essex) . Aug 31st PM Session 1: Measuring and analysing social processes, biological processes and their interactions (Noriko Cable, Jessica Abell, Meena Kumari, Scott Montgomery, Mel Bartley and David Blane: ICLS, UCL https://www.ucl.ac.uk/icls) The session explores methodological issues around the measurement and analysis of social exposures, biological processes and their interactions in longitudinal survey datasets. Topics covered include: the biological significance of 'standard' biomarkers that are available in many survey datasets, how they are measured and incorporated in analysis, and how such biomarkers are theoretically and conceptually linked to social processes measured in surveys. . Sept 1st AM Session 2: Developing social-biological models (Noriko Cable, Jessica Abell, Meena Kumari, Scott Montgomery, Mel Bartley and David Blane: ICLS, UCL https://www.ucl.ac.uk/icls) The focus of this session was on supporting the autumn school participants to develop their own models regarding social-biological interactions and processes. The participants worked in groups, supported by input from researchers from ICLS, presented their social-biological models to the class, and received feedback. . Sept 1st PM Session 3: Using 'Omics Data in the social sciences (Adam Stevens, Kris Mekli, Neil Pendleton and Nicholas Rattray, fRAILL Manchesterhttp://www.micra.manchester.ac.uk/research/fraill/) This session focused on the "new" biomarker data that are increasingly available in longitudinal surveys, with presentations from members of the "Frailty, Resilience And Inequality in Later Life research team" (fRAILL) at Manchester. These was introductory sessions on Genomics (Adam Stevens and Kris Mekli), Epigenetics (Neil Pendleton), and Metabolomics (Nik Rattray) with particular consideration of how such data can be incorporated in social science analyses. These introductory talks were followed by an open discussion on the challenges of analysing 'omics data in the social sciences. . Sept 1st Evening Keynote speaker: Professor Scott Montgomery, Orebro University http://www.oru.se/English/Employee/scott_montgomery/ . Sept 2nd AM Session 4: Statistical challenges of measuring longitudinal and lifecourse biomarker data (Natalie Shlomo, Joe Sakshaug, Alex Cernat, NCRM Manchester http://www.ncrm.ac.uk/research/WP3/wp3.php) This session featured initial findings from the NCRM research project on missing biomarker data in longitudinal surveys. There will be a description of the different patterns of missing biomarker data and comparison with other types of missing data in surveys (Alex Cernat). This will be followed by an introduction to methods for compensating for missing data under different missing data mechanism assumptions and methods for compensating for missing data (Joe Sakshaug and Natalie Shlomo). The session included a computer based practical session. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | ESRC PGR Conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | We promoted NCRM activities to postgraduate students - from courses, online resources, our Autumn School and networking. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | http://www.nwdtc.ac.uk/conference-2016/ |
| Description | ESRC Research Methods Festival 2016 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Work Package 1 • Sturgis, P. (2016) Fieldwork effort, response rate and the distribution of survey outcomes: a multi-level meta-analysis. • Durrant, G.B. (2016) Assessing risks of nonresponse bias during survey data collection: evidence from the UK Census nonresponse link study. • Maslovskaya, O., Durrant, G.B., Smith, P.W.F. (2016) Predicting response and call sequence length using paradata in a longitudinal survey. Work Package 2 . Davidson, E. and Weller, S. (2016) Working across multiple qualitative longitudinal studies: lessons from a feasibility study looking at care and intimacy: Strategies for Working with Combined Qualitative Longitudinal Data Sets session. Work Package 3 . Tampubolon, G. (2016) Inflammation, allostatic load in cognitive ageing and mental health. . Cernat, A. (2016) Missing data in bio-social research: issues, practice and recommendations. Work Package 4 . Smith, D. and Elliot, M. J. (2016) "How to de-blend a data soup" presented at the NCRM RMF 2016 Session - The New Data Environment: Opportunities and Challenges. . Robard,s J.; Martin, D. and Gale, C. "Engineering geoprivacy using automated zone design" presented at the NCRM RMF 2016 Session - The New Data Environment: Opportunities and Challenges. Work Package 5 . Collins, D. (2016) Research methods pedagogy in the digital era. Learning Social Science Research Methods: Let's Talk Pedagogy Session. Work Package 6 . Ralston, K., MacInnes, J., Crow, G., & Gayle, V. (2016) 'Statistics Anxiety' A Fairy Tale For Our Times? |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | http://www.ncrm.ac.uk/RMF2016/home.php |
| Description | Formal Dinner Speech, European Commission, Brussels |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Mark Elliot was invited to give a Formal Dinner Speech - 'Towards a Data Driven Economy' - to a policy dinner at the European Commission, Brussels in December 2016 in recognition of his expertise and the research undertaken by NCRM Work Package 4. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Innovation Forum Event: Investigative Social Research |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | This Innovation Forum engaged an audience of Journalists, NGOs and Third Sector organisations and explored the embryonic field of "investigative social research" and the methods that underpin it. A dynamic and frequently high impact field of contemporary research, investigative social research encompasses work by non-governmental organisations, data journalists and independent researchers alongside social scientists. The field is characterised by the breadth of output: studies, stories, blogs and reports which attract global public attention. The field makes heavy use of : "new data technologies and analytics and other means of intellectual cross-pollination, exchanging ideas and sometimes working and writing together, side by side, across borders, and genres each of them with different perspectives, backgrounds, interests, professional expertise, not to mention internationally and culturally diverse geographic and economic circumstances" (Lewis 2018: 23). In this context, investigative social researchers are developing approaches which "engage with new forms of data and analytic techniques, undertake rich empirical analysis as well as develop new resources for understanding [the world and what happens in it]" (Ruppert and Savage 2009: 17). In so doing, researchers are contributing to the development of distinctive new "ways of knowing" (ibid.). No longer the preserve of universities and academic disciplines, this opening up and reworking of "the methods and practices that researchers and analysts use to make sense of data" and do things with it (Arribas-Bel & Reades 2018: 5) is happening across disciplinary and sectoral boundaries. Investigative social research, as the forum showed, is data intensive, digitally enabled, highly collaborative and consequential and gives rise to its own distinctive "politics of method" (Savage & Burrows 2007). The forum focused on four major areas of innovation and debate within investigative research: 1. Following the Money When "All the President's Men" was released as a dramatisation of the investigation of the fall of Richard Nixon, the injunction to "follow the money" entered the popular lexicon. However, just how anyone should go about doing that and to what ends is less than clear. In this section of the workshop, investigative researchers working on just that problem discussed the methods and techniques they employ. 2. The Needle and the Haystack: Investigating at Scale The volume of digital information produced on an hourly basis is daunting but investigative researchers have been drawn to this vast sea of information in order to find out concrete things about the world and in rigorous ways. This session examined some of the techniques and methods used to do this. 3. Going Here, There and Everywhere: The Possibilities of Geospatial Data Nothing may seem more obvious than to note that things happen somewhere. However, investigating where things actually happened and, from there, working out how to more accurately characterise what took place, can be an immensely powerful exercise. Whether this involves locating people, objects, or processes, the results are frequently revealing. Reflecting on investigative research involving geo-spatial data of many different kinds, this section of the workshop emphasised the centrality of location to understanding the contemporary world and what takes place within it. 4. When and How to Open Things Out In a world where information is everywhere and we access rather than generate it per se, questions of ethics take on a rather different cast. Investigative researchers pride themselves on their ethical standards, but here as elsewhere those standards take different forms and are embedded in different practices. This session examined how ethical standards are translated into practice and what digital ethical standards mean. Particular issues raised across all of the themes included: accessing, managing and linking heterogeneous datasets both large and small, and methods for combining human and technological resources in investigative, analytical and verification work. A vibrant area of contemporary research, NCRM will work with researchers involved in investigations as part of sharing and opening access to its cutting edge. The presenters were: David De Roure (Oxford E-Research centre): The New Landscapes of Data and Research Richard Whittle (Corporate Watch)/David Whyte (University of Liverpool): Using Open Data to Research Corporate Power Jean Shaoul (University of Manchester): Financial Data Sources and Their Uses Milena Marin (Amnesty International): Amnesty International: On Big Data, Small Tasks and Massive Engagement John Burn-Murdoch (The FT): Explorations with Open Data Anna Fitzmaurice (Alan Turing Institute): Women in Data Science and AI: A Social Data Science Case Study Suzanne Vanhooymissen (BBC Africa Eye Investigations): Investigating Sudan's Livestream Massacre Chris Woods (Airwars UK): The Airwars Approach: How Geolocation and Open Source Iintelligence Can Help Disperse the Fog of War Jon Reades (KCL): The Full Stack: Designing a Robust and Replicable Geospatial Work Stream Meirion Jones (The Bureau of Investigative Journalism): The Work of The Bureau of Investigative Journalism: Collaboration and Impact Ella MacPherson (Cambridge University): Open Source Investigations and the Technology-Driven Knowledge Controversy in Human Rights Fact-Finding Susan Banducci (University of Exeter): The Politics of Openness |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Innovation Forum: BIG QUALIDATA - Tackling Analysis of Very Large Volumes of Qualitative Data in Social Science Research |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | BIG QUALIDATA: Tackling Analysis of Very Large Volumes of Qualitative Data in Social Science Research 9 May 2016, University of Edinburgh (with audiences at University of Manchester and University of Southampton via video-link) Chaired by Lynn Jamieson with guest presenters Professor Ken Benoit (LSE), Dr Elena Zaitseva (Liverpool John Moores University) and Professor Wendy Olsen (Manchester University) This was also a useful experiment in utilising technology to link audiences in different locations. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Media coverage in connection with content from the 2016 Research Methods Festival |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Research undertaken by the NCRM and the 2016 NCRM Research Methods Festival were the subject of or mentioned in the following media coverage: Politics.co.uk - The real reason the pollsters got the general election so wrong The Conversation - Can you trust the EU referendum polls? Guardian - Scientists aren't superheroes - failure is a valid result Social Care Guardian - How can care homes ensure a good death for residents? LSE Impact Blog - Visualising data in 3D: Handling complexity through visceral and tactile experiences of data - Modelling engagement: using theatre based workshops to explore citizenship and research participation |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Media coverage in connection with the British Polling Council / Market Research Society Polling Inquiry, Chaired by Professor Patrick Sturgis |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Professor Patrick Sturgis chaired the British Polling Council / Market Research Society Inquiry into the 2015 British General Election Opinion Polls. The first press release communicated the preliminary results and was picked up by more than 250 UK and international media outlets including local printed and online publications, TV and radio (e.g. Liverpool Echo, Jersey Evening Post, Sky News Sunrise, Wave 105, Bloomberg News Online and Reuters UK) and national media (BBC News Online, BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio 5 Live, The Guardian, The Times and The Independent). The second press release communicated the final results and the publication of the final report and was picked up by similar media organizations but in much smaller numbers (about 20 outlets). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | http://eprints.ncrm.ac.uk/3789/ |
| Description | NCRM Explore App |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | In March 2017, NCRM launched the NCRM Explore app which allows users to receive personalised research methods' content which best matches their research interests. It includes all up to date research methods' publications, videos, podcasts and training courses in a searchable and customisable interface. It also contains the latest tweets from NCRM. This app is for iPhones, iPads and Android phones and tablets. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017,2018 |
| URL | https://www.ncrm.ac.uk/app/ |
| Description | NCRM Facebook |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The NCRM Facebook account was set up in the summer of 2015. We now have 796 followers and a reach between 1- 2.6k. The post popular likes in 2017 were posts about our training courses and online resources, followed by anything about the next Research Methods Festival (RMF18), funding opportunities and calls for proposals. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015,2016,2017,2018 |
| URL | https://en-gb.facebook.com/ncrmuk/ |
| Description | NCRM Innovation Forum: Crowd-sourcing the Future? |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Citizen Social Science Methods, Data and Challenges Digital data is now generated in huge volumes by many citizens and is documenting peoples lives in detail. Moreover citizens are increasingly generating data as part of a sense of their own need to respond and report including during humanitarian crises. These approaches link to debates about civic engagement and the observant digital citizen. Digital citizens are becoming the eyes and ears of the world and the citizen response is becoming part of the tools to tackle social problems and political challenges previously left to the state. There are new opportunities to address intractable social issues but also increasing numbers of voices and truth claims. In this interactive one-day conference we will explore the future of citizen science and citizen social science methods. We will examine the different types of applications, methods, the data and the challenges posed including in terms of the debates about expertise, divisions of labour, different ways of seeing, data quality, questions about what might still be going undocumented and the ethical issues raised. We will also consider the ways in which more people can be encouraged to participate as citizen scientists. The conference will include talks by leading academics and practitioners involved in using citizen science and citizen social science methods. There will be opportunities to try out citizen science tools and to contribute to the debates. Outline Schedule 11am - Introductions and citizen science project demonstrations. 11.15am - Methods, Data, Ethics - Professor Chris Lintott (Zooniverse/University of Oxford) and Professor Muki Haklay (University College London). 12.15pm - Practitioner Short Talks 1 - Methods, Data and Ethics. Including: Ben Rich (BBC), Hilary Geoghegan (Reading), Will Dixon (Manchester), K. Purdam (Manchester). 1pm - Lunch and more project demonstrations. 1.30pm - Practitioner Short Talks 2 - Methods, Data and Ethics. Including: Erinma Ochu (Salford), Monika Buscher (Lancaster), Alex Albert (Manchester), Liz Richardson (Manchester). 2.30pm - More Participation? - Redesigning Research and the Policy Interface - Professor Muki Haklay (University College London). 3pm - 3.45pm Round Table Discussion - Ground Up Data and Crowd Sourced Applications. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | NCRM Innovation Forum: Streaming into the future: An agenda setting workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | As the data world increases in its complexity with gathering pace, data that is linked through time will become an increasing focus for the social and behavioural sciences. These data come in many different forms and granularities from the traditional longitudinal data provided by the UK's world envied cohort studies through user data generated social media data to tracking data generated by mobiles and live streams from sensors. This workshop will bring together social and data scientists who work with these data with the aim exchanging ideas and develop the agenda for the social and behavioural sciences. In plenary we will see presentations on cutting edge methods and new research questions made possible by these data and in break out groups we will draw out the key themes and future methodological research agenda. The intended output of the workshop is a position paper for submission to a top journal. All workshop attendees will be invited to co-author that paper, which is why we are inviting applications to attend this event. Applications are made via the registration link below. The workshop will run from 13:00 on 19th January to 14:00 on the 20th January. There will be a workshop dinner on the evening of the 19th. Confirmed speakers are: David de Roure, Oxford University Mark Birkin, Leeds University Jonathon Bright, Oxford University Idris Eckley, Lancaster University Mark Elliot, University of Manchester Niklas Loynes, University of Manchester Suzy Moat, Warwick University Michelle Morris, Leeds University Alex Singleton, Liverpool University |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | NCRM LinkedIn |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | We now have 1,344 followers on LinkedIn which is an increase of just under 300 compared to March 2017. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015,2016,2017,2018 |
| URL | https://www.linkedin.com/company/esrc-national-centre-for-research-methods |
| Description | NCRM Webinar: Zone design in practice |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | In this webinar, Prof David Martin, one of the co-directors of NCRM, provided a brief overview of automated zone design using AZTool software and illustrated some of the ways in which automated zone design methods are being used in a variety of contexts. David referred to examples including current work on the design of data collection geographies, areas for service delivery planning and NCRM research on statistical disclosure control for administrative data. The objective was to show participants how automated zone design approaches might be applicable in their own research contexts, and there were opportunities for discussion following the initial presentation. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://www.ncrm.ac.uk/resources/online/automated_zone_design/ |
| Description | NCRM YouTube |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | We now have 1,707 subscribers representing a huge increase in the past year (from 89 in March 2017). The 221 NCRM produced videos available have been viewed 113,763 times between April 2017 and March 2018 (likes 1069, dislikes 29, comments 171, shares 1089). The most popular videos between April 2017 and March 2018 were: - Structural Equation Modeling: what it is and what can we use it for (Patrick Sturgis) - 36,144 views, 417 likes - Key ideas, terms & concepts in Structural Equation Modeling (Patrick Sturgis) - 14,491 views, 143 likes - Confirmitory Factor Analysis (Patrick Sturgis) - 10,860 views, 106 likes - Crimes against data (Andrew Gelman) - 6,002 views, 85 likes - Poisson regression models for count data (Gabriele Durrant) - 5,040 views, 23 likes |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016,2017,2018 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/user/NCRMUK/videos |
| Description | NCRM online learning resources |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | During the reporting period, NCRM commissioned a new series of online learning resources. These six resources complement other already existing NCRM online resources such as the NCRM podcast series, NCRM working paper series, NCRM videos, the ReStore repository and a collection of external online resources. Existing material will be expanded using practical material (e.g. computer workshops and exercises), or interactive material. Details and a link to each of the six new online resources are available via the link below www.ncrm.ac.uk/resources/online |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015,2016,2017,2018 |
| URL | http://www.ncrm.ac.uk/resources/online/ |
| Description | NCRM website |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | NCRM's web presence is spread across several services which we monitor through Google Analytics, AwStats and also through a combination of our own registration statistics and server log files. Between April 2017 and March 2018 the NCRM website was visited by 95,412 individual users across 138,054 sessions and 435,639 page views, with an average session duration of 2 minutes and 23 seconds. Whilst 55.97% of visitors were from the UK, the NCRM website continues to attract significant numbers of international visitors with just under half coming from overseas - US 9.25% (8,866 users), India 3.76% (3,607 users), Australia 2.13% (2,038 users), Canada 1.76% (1,687 users), Germany 1.65% (1,586 users), Philipines 1.56% (1,491 users), Netherlands 1.21% (1,156 users), Ireland 1% (954 users) and Spain 0.9% (860 users). New in 2017 Methods@Manchester video podcasts have been added to the resources available on the NCRM Website. These include methodological seminars, presentations, online tutorials and short clips on new and established research methods. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015,2016,2017,2018 |
| URL | https://www.ncrm.ac.uk/ |
| Description | Presentation to the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) Justice Data Lab Advisory Board, December 2016 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Mark Elliot was invited to give a presentation - 'Anonymisation and Confidentiality Risk' - to the MoJ Justice Data Lab Advisory Board in December 2016 in recognition of his expertise and the research undertaken by NCRM Work Package 4 into disclosure risk in a world of linked population data. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Research Event - Maintaining high response rates - is it worth the effort? (London) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Durrant, G.B., Moore, J., and Smith, P.W.F. (2016) Assessing dataset representativeness during survey data collection - Evidence from the 2011 Census Non-Response Link Study, session on Maintaining high response rates - is it worth the effort? Demand for places at this research methods seminar was high and it was fully booked (125 attendees). The event successfully attracted many attendees from the target audience (survey practice) and 78% of attendees were non-academics. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | http://eprints.ncrm.ac.uk/3786/1/Maintaining%20high%20response%20rates%20%E2%80%93%20is%20it%20worth... |
| Description | Research Event: Opinion Polling in the EU Referendum: Challenges and Lessons |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Research Event on 8th December 2016: Opinion Polling in the EU Referendum: Challenges and Lessons Organised jointly by NCRM, British Polling Council and Market Research Society and held at the Royal Statistical Society, London. The referendum on Britain's membership of the European Union presented the opinion polls with a formidable challenge. Support for Remain and Leave crossed party lines. Rather than a debate between left and right, opinions reflected a division between social liberals and social conservatives. Even if the polls had overcome the difficulties that had beset them in 2015 - and that appeared to be still a work in progress - there was no guarantee that methods that had been honed to estimate party support in a general election would work effectively in this seemingly very different environment. As a result, the campaign was marked by a lively debate about polling methodology, and significant methodological experimentation and adaptation by polling companies. In the event the final polls correctly indicated that the result would be close, but for the most part, incorrectly indicated that Remain would be the most likely winner. With speakers from the polling companies and members of the BPC/MRS inquiry into the performance of the polls in the 2015 election, this seminar features presentations of how the polling companies set about their task and independent evaluations of the methodology that they used. Its aim is to identify the key lessons to be learned from the referendum for the future of opinion polling. • John Curtice: Polling in the EU Referendum: an overview • Ben Page: The challenges of polling by phone in the EU Referendum • Adam Drummond: The challenges of polling via the internet in the EU Referendum • Patrick Sturgis: Sampling and mode of interview • Stephen Fisher: Treatment of don't knows and turnout weighting • Will Jennings: The effect of methodological adjustments during the campaign |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014,2016 |
| URL | https://www.ncrm.ac.uk/polling/eu.php |
| Description | Research Methods Seminar: Approaches to analysing qualitative data: Archaeology as a metaphor for method |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | "How can we 'dig down' and get an analytic grip when working with large and complex bodies of qualitative data? The metaphor of archaeology enables qualitative analysts to think about what lies 'underneath' the corpus of material being analysed, working extensively and intensively to identify and excavate meaning." In this seminar, researchers working with different bodies of qualitative materials discussed how they approached their analysis, from a range of methodological perspectives. The speakers were: Professor Emeritus Clive Seale (Brunel University) An archaeological approach working with keyword analysis of a large corpus of qualitative data Dr. Emma Davidson (University of Edinburgh) A layered archaeological approach to analysis across multiple sets of qualitative longitudinal data Professor Maria Tamboukou (University of East London) Archaeology of knowledge and working in the archives 32 people attended the seminar which was generally very well received. Of the 22 participants who responded to an evaluation questionnaire, 86% reported that the seminar had influenced their approach and the techniques discussed would be useful in their work. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | http://bigqlr.ncrm.ac.uk/ |
| Description | Research Methods Seminar: Creating Research Data Policy in a Changing Data Landscape |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This workshop is an output of the deliberation on a wide range of topics that have arisen from the NCRM workpackage. In working on the sometimes very technical questions, we came to realise that it is impossible to arrive at well-formed conclusions on these types of topic without considering the wider context in which such technical advances are happening. In short, functional answers to these questions will be necessarily interdisciplinary and so for this workshop we have assembled a set of speakers each of whom will cover some of the important perspectives. The workshop considered these drivers, how they are changing the data landscape and how one might create and implement data policies and standards in such a changing context. What is research data - how will we be accessing and using it in 5, 10 years' time? What should organisational level data policies look like? How do you identify what your data needs are? How do you plan data resources? What does leadership in this area look like? Who needs to be involved in the conversation? Session I: Changing Legal and Policy Frameworks How can functional anonymization help us interpret the GDPR's model of personal data? Dr Karen McCullagh, Lecturer, School of Law, University of East Anglia Dr Elaine Mackey, Research Associate, University of Manchester Policy and process; enabling research with the Digital Economy Act Jon Wroth-Smith, Statistician, Office for National Statistics Session II: Changing Data Data Horizons: Some Thoughts on the Future of Data Professor Mark Elliot, School of Social Sciences, University of Manchester Streaming web data for social science research Dr Jonathan Bright, Research Fellow, Oxford Internet Institute Session II: Changing Technologies Ensuring new solutions meet the real challenges: the role of DataSHIELD Tom Bishop, Senior Data Scientist, MRC Epidemiology Unit, University of Cambridge Seeing the big picture - the importance of taking an 'end-to-end' view on administrative data linkage Professor Chris Dibben, Chair in Geography, University of Edinburgh Privacy engineering: emerging technologies and policy implications Guy Cohen, Privitar |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Research Methods Seminar: Preventing and Compensating for Missing Data in Biosocial Longitudinal Data |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Summary: We present on-going research at the University of Manchester on preventing and compensating for nonresponse in biosocial longitudinal data. Fiona Pashazadeh will open the workshop with a systematic literature review based on two large longitudinal surveys in the UK - Understanding Society and the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA). Published papers will be categorised according to which, if any, missing data techniques have been used and how the possible impact of the missing data on the resulting analysis has been discussed. Georgia Chatzi will present research examining the association between socio-economic position and the biomarker C-Reactive protein (CRP) over four waves of data from ELSA. A latent growth curve model is presented which includes different imputation procedures and joint modelling to compensate for the missing data with a comparison to the complete case analysis. Following the break, Tina Hannemann will present initial results from a large-scale simulation study based on ELSA comparing methods for compensating for missing data under a growth curve model to assess trajectories of the biomarker CRP. Finally, Tarani Chandola will present methodological issues for handling large amounts of attrition for a study based on a longitudinal analysis of refugees' self-reported health and well-being. Agenda: 2:30 - 3:00 Fiona Pashazadeh What are the current approaches taken to deal with missing biological data due to nonresponse in population representative sample surveys? A systematic review of the literature. 3:00 - 3:30 Georgia Chatzi Life course socioeconomic position effects on repeated systemic inflammation in older adults: compensating for missing data. 4:00 - 4:30 Tina Hannemann Compensating for Non-response in Biosocial Research: Simulation Study from a Longitudinal Data Analysis 4:30 - 5:00 Tarani Chandola What are the wider social determinants of refugee health and well-being? Some methodological considerations in a longitudinal survey of refugees in the UK |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Research Methods Seminar: Teaching Research Methods: Building on Research to Develop Expertise |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | NCRM invited teachers of advanced social science research methods to discuss findings from our new pedagogic research through workshops, networking, panel discussion and keynotes. PROGRAMME 11.00 Welcome and Speakers • John MacInnes, Professor of Sociology, Associate Dean Quantitative Methods, University of Edinburgh. John has played a key role as Strategic Advisor to the ESRC on QM Training and leads the QM Pedagogy research in the National Centre for Research Methods. He will be talking about teaching quantitative methods in the face of statistics anxiety. • Melanie Nind, Professor of Education, University of Southampton, Co-Editor International Journal of Research & Method in Education. As a Co-Director within NCRM Melanie is working to enhance the ways in which methods training can be enhanced by being research-informed. She leads the NCRM Pedagogy of Methodological Learning study and will be talking about the pedagogic knowledge methods teachers/trainers have and use. • Richard Rogers, Professor of New Media & Digital Culture, University of Amsterdam. Richard is Director of the Govcom.org Foundation (Amsterdam) and the Digital Methods Initiative. He had been an expert contributor to the NCRM pedagogical research and will speak on the topic of training and capacity building and digital methods. 12.15 Workshops designed to create a learning community collaborating pooling expertise to make best use of research evidence alongside their professional knowledge. Workshop 1: Responding to the statistical anxiety of methods learners and teachers Workshop 2: Identifying key features of a good pedagogic resource for methods teachers & learners 13.15 Lunch 14.00 Workshops Workshop 3: Making constructive use of an emergent typology of methods pedagogy Workshop 4: Using digital technology to enhance the teaching of research methods 15.00 Panel including John MacInnes, Richard Rogers, Sarah Lewthwaite (Research Fellow, NCRM), Gabi Durrant (Deputy Director, NCRM), Louise Corti (Associate Director, UK Data Service) and Howard Davis (Co-Director, WISERD). The panel will be answering your questions and focusing on the changing landscape of research methods and methods training, teaching and learning. 15.45 Close |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | http://pedagogy.ncrm.ac.uk/ |
| Description | Seminar: Exploring the potential of biosocial research for social policy - Department of Social Services of the Australian National Government, 19 April 2017 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Professor Tarani Chandola was invited by the Australian National Government to deliver a seminar to the Department of Social Services: - Exploring the potential of biosocial research for social policy This seminar represents dissemination of NCRM research findings to an International Government audience. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Seminar: Work and socioeconomic differences in health and biomarkers - Melbourne and Australia National Universities, April 2017 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Professor Tarani Chandola was invited by two Australian Universities to give a seminar on: - Work and socioeconomic differences in health and biomarkers Melbourne University 7 April 2017 and Australia National University 19 April 2017 These seminars represent dissemination of NCRM research findings to an International academic audience. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Symposium: Re-visioning the regulation of data sharing in the social sciences, 23-24 March 2017, Linkoping University, Sweden |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This two-day symposium brought together a small international group of social scientists from nine nations (Australia, England, Germany, Norway, Poland, Hungary, Scotland, Sweden, and the United States) with relevant expertise to discuss the key European and international policy concern of regulation of data archiving and sharing in the social sciences and its possible future directions. Susie Weller participated in the symposium and contributed the work of NCRM Work Package 2 in the following presentation: - What of the researcher in the regulation of data archiving and sharing? A view from the UK. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | The Working Across Qualitative Longitudinal Studies: A Feasibility Study Looking at Care and Intimacy website |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The Working Across Qualitative Longitudinal Studies: A Feasibility Study Looking at Care and Intimacy website has been visited circa 4,000 times (at end February 2017) and has 142 subscribers. The website features, amongst other content, a series of team blogs and guest blogs: Research team blog # 6: Getting out of the swamp Research team blog # 5: Time in Timescapes Research team blog # 4: Approaches to Analysing Qualitative Data: Archaeology as a Metaphor for Method, 18th October 2016 Research team blog # 3: Case Histories in Qualitative Longitudinal Research, 6th & 7th October 2016 Research team blog # 2: NCRM Research Festival Research team blog # 1: Getting started Guest blog # 8: Dr Sarah Wilson: Using qualitative secondary analysis as a tool of critical reflexivity Guest blog # 7, Dr Gregor Wiedemann: Computer-assisted text analysis beyond words Guest blog #6, Nick Emmel: Revisiting yesterday's data today Guest blog #5, Sue Bellass: The challenges of multiple perspectival QL analysis Guest blog #4, Libby Bishop: Data from the past and for the future - Qualitative longitudinal data available at the UK Data Service Guest blog #3, Prof Rachel Thomson: Case histories in QLR Guest blog #2: Dr Fiona Shirani: Visual approaches in QLR Guest blog #1, Dr Anna Tarrant: Reflections from the Men, Poverty and Lifetimes of Care study |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015,2016,2017 |
| URL | http://bigqlr.ncrm.ac.uk/ |
| Description | Workshop: Maximising investments in longitudinal studies - hosted by the National Centre for Longitudinal Data (NCLD), Australia on 20 April 2017 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | This workshop session involved Professor Tarani Chandola and key Australian Government officials involved in the design and commissioning of longitudinal studies (NCLD staff, Department of Health, Department of Education plus others). Professor Chandola shared his experience, particularly that gained through the research activities undertaken by the UK NCRM, in best practice design, commissioning and investment decisions in longitudinal studies and how to maximise return on investment in longitudinal studies, starting with information sharing and creating a network of longitudinal study commissioners. Issues discussed ranged from commissioning new studies or modules, adding new cohorts or sample groups to existing studies and maintaining representation - through to issues around maintaining cost-effectiveness of the studies, reducing duplication, and study harmonisation (including participant utility). Professor Chandola's experiences were discussed in the context of some of Australia's leading longitudinal studies, including the Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth (LSAY), the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey, the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC), the Longitudinal Study of Indigenous Children (LSIC), Building a New Life in Australia: The Longitudinal Study of Humanitarian Migrants (BNLA), the Australian Longitudinal Study of Women's Health (ALSWH), and the Australian Longitudinal Study of Male Health (ALSMH). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |