A brief history of the National Centre for Research Methods

The National Centre for Research Methods (NCRM) is celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2024. This video timeline provides an overview of some of the centre's key milestones over the past two decades. NCRM was founded at the University of Southampton in 2004 with funding from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). Since then, it has led the advancement of research methods in the UK through an extensive array of innovative activities, from training courses to research projects. The centre is now a partnership of three leading institutions – The University of Manchester, the University of Edinburgh and the University of Southampton – and 2024 marks a decade of this collaboration

Technology and Contemporary Classical Music: Methodologies in Practice-Based Research

This position paper provides a distillation of the NCRM Innovation Forum, ‘Technology and Contemporary Classical Music: Methodologies in Creative Practice Research’, hosted by Cyborg Soloists in June 2023. It features contributions from a variety of creative practitioner-researchers to debate the current state and future of technologically focused, practice-based research in contemporary classical music. The position paper is purposefully polyphonic and pluralistic. By collating a range of perspectives, experiences and expertise, the paper seeks to provoke and delineate a space for further questioning, inquiry, and response. The paper will be of interest to those working within creative practice research, particularly in relation to music, music technologists and those interested in research methodologies more broadly

Survey Data Collection Network (SDC-Net): The impact of Covid-19 on survey data collection methods in the social sciences

This is the final report of the Survey Data Collection Network (SDC-Net). SDC-Net was a network of UK-based academic and non-academic partners including government departments, third sector and commercial research organisations, academics and major ESRC investments to share knowledge and collaborate in the area of survey data collection in social surveys as well as in setting the research agenda in the field. The network operated between December 2021 and April 2023. The Principal Investigator was Olga Maslovskaya (University of Southampton) and the Co-Investigators are Gabriele Durrant (University of Southampton and NCRM), Lisa Calderwood (UCL), Gerry Nicolaas (NatCen) and Laura Wilson (ONS). The network activities were funded by the ESRC via the project “The impact of Covid-19 on survey data collection methods in the Social Sciences” as an additional funding stream of the ESRC-funded UK National Centre for Research Methods (NCRM). The network included 107 members. The list of the organisations of the network members can be found in Appendix 1. Tim Hanson, who is the Head of ESS Questionnaire Design and Fieldwork in the European Social Survey (ESS), Ben Humberstone, who is the Head of Population Studies in Kantar Public, Sam Clemens, who is the Head of Probability Survey in Ipsos-Mori as well as Debrah Harding, who is the Managing Director of the Market Research Society (MRS), were project partners. The ESRC recognised the importance of the activities of the previous network GenPopWeb2 which was also funded by the ESRC and the activities of SDC-Net were the continuation of the GenPopWeb2 with the wider scope addressing not only issues associated with online data collection in social surveys but the wider area of survey data collection in the UK

NCRM Bitesize Lessons for Teaching Social Science Research Methods 3: Learning from Learners

This document is the third guide in the series NCRM Bitesize Lessons for Teaching Social Science Research Methods. It focuses on learning from learners. It is clear from the scholarly work on teaching research methods that teachers/trainers often favour student-centred learning approaches. Student-centredness involves working with and valuing learners’ own experiences, knowledge, and expertise, thereby making the learning personally relevant and learners more motivated. In this way they learn better, make cognitive connections, and develop as learners and people. This reflects a concept of students as knowledge-producers who need to be engaged in creating their own knowledge through inquiry and dialogue. For this, learners need to work both independently and collaboratively. Methods teachers may choose student-centred learning as an efficient way of working. Bell, for example, argues that ownership of learning and research projects makes learners better able to defend and justify methods. Student-centredness in methods learning may take the form of student-led inquiry, working with data in their own fields, shared learning logs, and exercises to personalise new knowledge

Decolonising Research Methods

This webinar was organised by QUEST (Qualitative Expertise at Southampton) in collaboration with the National Centre for Research Methods and the South Coast Doctoral Training Partnership. It was held on 4 July 2023. The speakers were: Professor Ros Edwards of the University of Southampton, Dr Rachel Jane Liebert of the University of East London and Wanda Canton, a ESRC South Coast DTP-funded doctoral researcher at the University of Brighton

Complex clinical data and Gestational Diabetes Mellitus

This Innovation Forum brought together a multidisciplinary group of researchers, clinicians, data scientists, industry partners, NHS Digital, and others to discuss the opportunities and challenges for improving clinical care using complex clinical data. The workshop focussed on one specific clinical challenge, Gestational Diabetes Mellitus (GDM), with consideration of other data science challenges and solutions in pregnancy care more widely and other clinical conditions. The Forum was an opportunity to learn about specific data challenges researchers had experienced, learn from what has worked, and where further research is needed. We identified several opportunities for GDM data research in the UK, including the commissioning of the first national GDM audit and a need to focus on preventing type 2 diabetes after GDM in young women. The Forum identified six areas for future work and funding: (i) support for infrastructure to enable data science in this field; (ii) the need to map available data sources in the UK for pregnancy research; (iii) streamlined solutions for ethical approvals and regulatory support; (iv) improving data quality, linkage and access for researchers; (v) development of machine learning and statistical approaches; and (vi) the need to collaborate with clinicians, women and their families to make sure data science improves lives

Research strategy, uncertainty and COVID-19: A conversation

As part of NCRM’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we developed a project called Changing Research Practices that, over three funding phases between 2020 and 2022, aimed to bring together members of researcher communities to share ideas, support each other, and identify and synthesise rapidly emerging evidence about how to adapt research to the pandemic conditions. In the third phase, we ran a series of workshops that focused on the theme of uncertainty in research, which had been an important aspect throughout the earlier part of the project. The workshop series involved a small group of participants, five of whom used the last workshop to generate a film of their conversation, which summarises many of the key issues in regards to uncertainty that emerged through the project. In the film, the researchers used a metaphor sketch elicitation method (coincidentally something we had generated for Phase I) to explore uncertainty in research practices and includes contributions from Ned Barker (UCL), Ceri Davies (Natcen), Romina Istratii (SOAS), Olimpia Mosteanu (Social-Life) and Pedro Rothstein (People’s Palace, Queen Mary University). The video covers a wide of topics in regards to research processes and shows the methodological and ethical considerations that come to the fore in the context of crisis

SDC-Net final meeting: Decisions, decisions, decisions – survey commissioning in a multi-source, multi-mode world

This video is a recording of the final meeting of the Survey Data Collection Network, which took place online on 22 March 2023. The event began with presentations from a panel of experts, who then answered questions from the audience. The panel members were: Mike Daly (Department for Work and Pensions); Michael Dale (Department for Education); Ally McAlpine (Scottish Government); Martina Portanti (Office for National Statistics); Andrew Spiers (Sport England). The speakers discussed how survey commissioners need to consider various trade-offs with regard to cost, accuracy, timeliness, inclusivity, granularity and other issues when deciding on the design of a survey, but also the use of ‘new’ technologies and alternative data sources alongside or instead of surveys. Panel members also explored what information survey commissioners need from suppliers, researchers and/or methodologists to be able to make informed decisions about the commissioning and design of surveys. The panel discussion was chaired by Gerry Nicolaas, Director of the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen)

NCRM Annual Lecture 2023

The NCRM Annual Lecture 2023 was held at the Royal Society in London on Tuesday, 25 April 2023. The keynote speaker for the event, which was also streamed online, was Professor Elizabeth Stokoe of the London School of Economics and Political Science. She was joined by the discussant, Dr Jon Sutton, editor of The Psychologist magazine. Professor Stokoe discussed the power of conversation analysis to reveal both effective and problematic communication practices in a variety of contexts. Her talk, A Method in Search of a Problem: The Power of Conversation Analysis, showed how conversation analysis can be used to identify, describe and share effective communication practices, as well as challenge common communication myths and expose inequalities. The event included an introductory presentation from NCRM's Director, Professor Gabriele Durrant, who provided an overview of NCRM's core activities. The event closed with questions from the audience, but this section is not included in this recording

Digital Methods of Working with Children: Ethics, Rights and Responsibilities

This guidance paper outlines some of the ethical considerations relating to the use of digital methods for researching with children. It is Guidance Paper 4 in the series The Ethics of Research Involving Children: Common Questions, Potential Strategies and Useful Guidance. Given the fast-paced development of technology and digital media, in this paper we encourage researchers to consider ethical issues as they apply to their chosen digital method and study design. The Internet is now an integral part of children’s everyday lives, and its importance, as both the subject of and tool for research, will only increase. In the UK alone, an Ofcom report reveals that more than half of children are online by the age of three, and from 12 years old onwards 99% of children have used the internet. Children use the Internet for a variety of purposes: education, communication, information-sharing, entertainment, gaming, creative outlets, shopping, and more. Hence, many children find it easier to ‘be themselves’ online, and have been shown to love the use of digital technology. They also tend to be quicker in adapting to and learning to use new technology than other age groups. It is absolutely essential, therefore, that researchers develop their capacities to deploy digital resources, to enable them to engage with children in the online spaces they so readily occupy. The use of digital media has implications beyond providing practical, effective tools for researchers’ interactions with children though; it can shift the power dynamics of the researcher/child relationship by “positively exploiting children’s natural capabilities to engage with and respond to digital media in a way that may far exceed normal adult researchers’ capabilities”. Despite this, protocols for the use of digital research methods are still developing, and researchers still struggle to develop ethically robust and creative approaches to digital-based research. Ethics committees have well-founded concerns that the use of online media presents additional risks to the safety of the child and the integrity of the research. This guidance paper seeks to respond to some of these concerns and identifies some potential strategies to overcome them