RACcER: Re-use and Archiving of Complex Community-Based Evaluation Research

Making data accessible is increasingly part of national research policy. For example IRCHSS requires that “whenever data is to be collected with the support of a grant awarded by IRCHSS, applicants must specify the means by which that data will be made available as a public good for use by other researchers.” However, archiving qualitative social science data and making it available for re-use can present practical and ethical obstacles to researcher compliance with this policy. This project on “Re-use and Archiving of Complex Community-Based Evaluation Research” (RACcER) will work towards enhancing the ethos and practice of qualitative data archiving in Ireland through a major demonstrator project that will examine the challenges facing researchers, design and implement creative ways of overcoming those challenges, and develop best practice guideline

RACcER will develop and establish a knowledge transfer relationship between the Tallaght West Childhood Development Initiative and the Irish Qualitative Data Archive housed in the National Institute for Regional and Spatial Analysis at NUI Maynooth.

The Irish Qualitative Data Archive (IQDA) is a central access point for qualitative (non-numerical) social science data generated within Ireland. IQDA is currently funded as part of the Irish Social Science Platform under the Programme for Research in Third Level Institutions (Cycle 4). It is housed in the National Institute for Regional and Spatial Analysis at NUI Maynooth
Tallaght West Childhood Development Initiative (CDI) is one of three ‘Prevention and Early Intervention’ sites co-funded by the Office of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs (OMCYA) and The Atlantic Philanthropies (the latter will provide the co-fund contribution for RACcER). As part of a solutions-based 10-year strategy, CDI has commissioned the delivery of five services and initiatives in Tallaght West that are being rigorously evaluated by six independent evaluation teams that include senior researchers from a range of higher education institutes in Ireland and the United Kingdom. The evaluations will generate a significant volume of qualitative data and contextual information, including: individual and focus group interview transcripts; observation and participatory data; process documentation. Anonymised secondary qualitative data arising from this research will be available for archiving.

The project will explore and implement innovative approaches to meeting the ethical and practical challenges involved in archiving and creating appropriate levels of access to the complex qualitative and contextual data generated by the independent evaluation teams that have been commissioned by CDI, without overlapping or duplicating work already being undertaken. It will document the concerns of both researchers and potential data users and will establish and disseminate best practice guidelines for archiving data generated in community-based evaluation research. It will be a significant demonstrator project for the development of a wider culture of qualitative data archiving in Ireland. In order to meet these aims the project team will pursue the following objectives:

Identification and documentation of the needs and concerns of both researchers in the evaluation teams and of potential data users
Exploration and development of ethically sound procedures for archiving and providing access to appropriate qualitative data generated in the evaluations
Development of innovative methods for contextualising and documenting the research process and for archiving and disseminating both contextual and process data. This will also feed into the wider CDI documentation of the overall research process.
Adoption and implementation of a strategy for communicating with potential users of the archived material and for disseminating the findings of the research project