Slides providing an overview of the research methods used in the author's thesis, "Managing Ireland's Research Data: Recognising Roles for Recordkeepers". The methods discussed are online surveys, comparative case studies, and autoethnography. Licensed as CC-BY.

1. Managing Ireland’s Research Data:
Recognising Roles for
Recordkeepers
Rebecca Grant, University College Dublin
Twitter: @beck.grant

2. “For every 20 people who generate data, you
need one data steward: 500,000 data stewards
in the next decade. They will be a new breed of
people.”
Barend Mons, then chair of the High-Level Expert Group on
the European Open Science Cloud advising the European Commission (2016)

3. PhD Research Questions
1. What are the current practices, policies and
perspectives in Irish organisations regarding
research data management?
2. Are recordkeeping professionals involved in
research data management in Irish
organisations?
3. How do recordkeeping professionals impact
research data management at their
organisation?

4. Framing good practice: the Data Curation Life-cycle
Model
http://www.dcc.ac.uk/resources/curation-lifecycle-model

5. Ten Areas of Archival Expertise:
1. Ownership
2. Donor Relations
3. Intellectual Property
4. Appraisal
5. Context of Creation and Use
6. Authenticity
7. Restrictions on Access and Use
8. Transfer of Ownership
9. Permanence
10. Collection-Level Metadata
The Archival Advantage (Dooley)
https://www.oclc.org/research/publications/2015/oclcresearch-
archival-advantage-2015.html

6. Six Facets of the Archival Perspective:
1. Provenance
2. Appraisal and Selection
3. Authenticity
4. Metadata
5. Risk Management
6. Trust
How has your science data grown? (Poole)
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10502-014-9236-y

7. Research methodology: surveying Irish organisations
• Online survey aiming to gather data on
organisational data management practice;
data-related policies; motivations; and
whether a recordkeeping professional is
involved.
• Sent to 28 Irish organisations in October
2017 (purposive non-probability sampling).
• 11 responses received - relatively high
response rate but small sample size.

8. Online survey method
8
• Addressing first research question: what’s happening in Ireland?
A useful method when little is known about a topic – exploratory
• Developed around an existing, relevant framework – the Digital
Curation Life-cycle model.
Framed by what we do know about the area being explored
• Focused on clarity of questions, and piloted with similar
organisations. Then undertook an expert review.
Trying to ensure validity – that the results weren’t an accident
• Used a purposive, non-probability sampling method for
participants.
Thinking ahead about what kind of responses might be collected

9. Thinking about data analysis
9
• Analysis should be taken into account when designing questions
(quantitative versus qualitative).
• Software for analysis: Quantitative = Excel/Pivot tables;
qualitative = nVivo. Stats?
• Data visualisation (e.g. charts) must also be created (Google
slides, Excel, Powerpoint?)
What type of resources are required to access or interpret your data? Please
select all that apply.
For example, spatial data may require a specific analysis software to allow it to be
reused.
• Specific software application which was developed in-house.
• Licensed commercial software.
• Open Source software.
• Other, please specify.
• None of the above.
In general, do you believe that the data for which your organisation is
responsible can be easily located when required? Please describe why or why
not.
[Text box]

10. Data visualisation – activities across organisations
Key elements of the DCC Curation Lifecycle
model fulfilled by survey respondents

11. Data visualisation – archivists across organisations

12. Tips when using the survey method
12
• If you are working with human participants then you will need to go
through ethical review or apply for ethical exemption.
• Identify an appropriate sample size and expect a response rate of 35-
40%. Leave enough time to send reminders.
• Use appropriate survey software – the free versions all have different
limitations e.g. number of responses.
• If you don’t have time/resources to pilot the survey ask a fellow MA
student to read through the questions and check for clarity and lack of
bias.

13. Survey conclusions & limitations
• Self-selection of survey respondents (17 chose not to respond).
• Lack of generalisability due to sampling method.
• More than half of surveyed organisations employed a
recordkeeping professional who supported data management
activities.
• It was not possible to establish the roles of these people or how
they fit into their organisational structures.
• Additional research needed to address the role of recordkeeping
professionals.

14. Research methodology: Comparative case studies
• Focused on third research question:
what’s the impact of recordkeepers?
• Separate to survey data (not mixed
methods study).
• Comparative case studies – how do
organisations with or without archivists
compare?
• A range of data sources needed:
interviews, annotated bibliographies,
website reviews, and analysis of national
data aggregators.

15. Interviews as a data gathering method
• Shortlist more options than you need in case your first choice does
not agree to participate.
• Consider structured versus semi-structured format. Semi-
structured leads to a more natural conversation but harder to keep
interviewee on track.
• Be informed (don’t waste their time) but don’t ask leading
questions.
• Plan for prompts when interviewees are not chatty.
• The longer your interview lasts, the more you will need to
transcribe afterwards (4 mins per 1 min interview time)
• Think about follow-ups or snowball sampling interviewees.

16. Analysing the data
• Used voice recorder plus iPhone app for back-up.
• Necessary to transcribe interviews before coding begins (e.g. into a
Word document)
• Interviewees should have the opportunity to check your transcription.
• Interviewees should be informed if you plan to use direct quotes.
• NVivo software can be used for coding (available from the UCD
AppsAnywhere service.)

17. Synthesising data & analysis
• Four organisations (cases) used for comparative analysis.
• Data sources for each: website review, policy review, interview
data, data aggregators.
• Comparative analysis using all four cases (no individual analysis
of cases)
• Framed by Digital Curation Life-cycle Model – how could
organisational approaches be mapped to the stages of the
model?
• Key comparison – practice in organisations with recordkeepers
vs those without.

18. Conclusions & limitations
18
• Comparative cases did not work
exactly as intended
• Extremely long and time consuming
chapter
• Did generate conclusions on the role
of recordkeepers
• Additional conclusions on the
similarities across organisations

19. Autoethnography
Describe and systematically analyse (graphy) personal
experience (auto) in order to understand cultural
experience (ethno).
“Unscientific”
“Self-indulgent”
“Biased”

20. Autoethnography
• Ethnography – participant observation, researcher immersed in the
culture of the group being studied (often for long periods).
• Autoethnography – turns this method towards the researcher
themselves.
• Allows researcher to make their own participation in the research
explicit.
• Also useful due to the limited number of potential study
participants.

21. Autoethnography
• Data gathering (field notes, external documents, lit
review, reflective material)
• Autoethnographic account (approx 4000 words)
• Analysis (framed by Dooley & Poole)

22. Research Methods Conclusion
• When choosing a methodology read examples studies by other
archival researchers who have used it (e.g. search Archival Science
for “case studies”).
• Consider/acknowledge the limitations of your method.
• Be aware of the consequences on relying on others to provide your
data!
Luker, Kristin. Salsa dancing into the social sciences. Harvard University Press, 2010.
Czaja, Ronald and Johnny Blair. Designing Surveys: a guide to decisions and procedures. London:
SAGE Publications, 1996.
Yin, Robert K. Case Study Research and Applications: Design and Methods. California: SAGE
Publications, 2018.
Chang, Heewon. Autoethnography as Method. New York: Taylor & Francis, 2008.

23. Thank you!
Contact:
Beck.grant@gmail.com
Twitter.com/beck_grant
Image credits:
Davide Ragusa via Unsplash
Kelly Sikkema via Unsplash
Kelly Sikkema via Unsplash
Jon Tyson via Unsplash
Dana Marin via Unsplash
Slides are licensed as CC-BY, please credit Rebecca Grant