Feb 29th 2024
Bi-weekly news from Spark: a centre for social research innovation at McMaster University
|
|
New Research Data Management (RDM) planning tools for McMaster social sciences:
Over the last several years, the Tri-Council Agencies have been developing a new policy for research data management, part of which requires that institutions, like McMaster, develop robust institutional strategies to support RDM practices. Data management plans are currently required for advanced stage SSHRC Partnership grant applications, and in the future, this requirement will be extended to new SSHRC funding applications in other competitions.
To help researchers develop their RDM plans, the Digital Research Alliance of Canada maintains the DMP Assistant, which is an online, interactive tool that walks researchers through all the key decisions that comprise a robust RDM plan. Though useful, the default or basic templates often fail to reflect the complexities of social science research or the specific types of resources available at McMaster.
To address this gap and support RDM planning in the social sciences at McMaster, Spark's Academic Director, Michelle Dion, has collaborated with members of the University's Research Data Management team, Danica Evering and Emilie Altman, to develop new Data Managment Plan (DMP) Assistant templates specific to the needs of typical social science research at McMaster University.
The new templates include McMaster-specific guidance, including links to resources for researchers to support their plan development. Both the RDM team and Spark can provide guidance or advice on the development of your research data management plans.
There are four different McMaster-specific social science templates available on the DMP Assistant:
- An Exhaustive Mixed Methods template designed for complex projects that combine qualitative and quantitative social science methods;
- A Qualitative Data template for qualitative analysis of interviews and focus groups;
- A Secondary Data template for use of a wide range of existing data sources, such as documents, scraped data, and/or public-use surveys; and
- A Survey Data template for use with surveys and experiments that create new data that will be analyzed using quantitative methods.
The development of these templates was supported by a grant from the Digital Research Alliance of Canada, for which Dr. Dion was Principal Investigator.
|
|
As always, all Spark Talks will be on a Friday from 10:30 to 11:30AM EST and will be accessible via Zoom. However, if you feel like joining us in person, you can visit us at L.R. Wilson Hall, where you can network and connect with members of our team directly and treat yourself to some refreshments!
March 1st: Adeline Lo
Topic: "Mapping Literatures with Networks"
Understanding the gaps and connections across existing theories and findings is a perennial challenge in scientific research. To encourage systematic, replicable, and transparent methods for assessing literature, we propose an accessible network-based framework for reviewing scholarship. We demonstrate how network statistics and visualization allow researchers to see patterns and offer reproducible characterizations of assertions about the major themes in existing literature with an example on the redistricting literature.
Register Now
March 8th: Ala Alrababah
Topic: "Learning from Null Effects: A Bottom-Up Approach"
A critical barrier to generating cumulative knowledge is the inability of researchers to observe the results from the full set of research designs. Studies that produce null findings are especially likely to be unobserved, creating biases in publicly accessible research. We call for the establishment of a new discipline-wide norm in which scholars post short “null results reports” online that summarize their research designs, findings, and interpretations. To address the inevitable incentive problems, we argue that decentralized research communities can spur the broader disciplinary norm change that would bring advantage to scientific advance. To facilitate our contribution, we offer a template for these reports.
Register Now
|
|
Resources for Researchers
|
|
|
Research Conversations
We provide up to 4 hours of free support each year to any researcher (students, staff, faculty or community) on every social research topic imaginable. If we can't help you, we'll help you find someone who can.
Request a research conversation here
Qualtrics Licenses
If you are an Faculty of Social Sciences researcher who would like to request access to Qualtrics survey software, please fill out this form
Looking to pool software licences?
Now you can! Fill out this form and we will reach out if we can match you with others looking to pool licences.
Methods Demonstrations
Faculty in Social Sciences may request demonstrations, short trainings, or code-along sessions from Spark staff for Research Methods or Professional Skills courses. We're happy to discuss any needs and have already developed trainings for Literature Review, Interviewing, Survey Development, Focus Groups, Data Visualization. Email us at talk.to.spark@mcmaster.ca to discuss if there's a fit for your course.
CoLab
Research on research innovation (yes, it's very meta) points to a simple truth. Being in the same physical space and able to informally interact significantly increases cross-disciplinary collaboration and discovery. The Spark CoLab aims to be such a space. It is a free, open co-working space for graduate students, research staff and faculty. You can learn more on our website or stop by from 9 am - Noon or 1 pm - 4pm on Tuesday or Thursday for a tour and orientation.
SEAL
Some data is critical to addressing major research questions, but is also profoundly sensitive and must be secured. SEAL is a high security data repository that allows approved researchers worldwide to access highly sensitive data securely. Data owners can use it to engage researchers in using their datasets and researchers can access data that otherwise would not be available to them.
Learn more about SEAL at: https://seal.mcmaster.ca/
Brighter Spark Applied Research
Spark offers custom research and evaluation, as well as highly skilled assistance in implementing virtually any social research method. Our cost-recovery services include methods and software training, custom research, state-of-the-art facilities, and taking on elements of your project to support its completion.
|
|
Help us profile your research, publications, job ads, opportunities, and upcoming events by sending them to: talk.to.spark@mcmaster.ca to be showcased in our following newsletter.
McMaster University: Upcoming Events at the Sherman Centre for Digital Scholarship
Join us at the Sherman Centre for Digital Scholarship for our engaging upcoming events:
Research Data Management Workshops:
Sonification Workshops:
Communicating Data with Sound
Date: March 15
For more information and to register for these events, visit Sherman Centre for Digital Scholarship website.
McMaster's Community-Engaged Research celebration
Date: March 28th 2024
The Office of Community Engagement (OCE) would like to highlight the Community-Engaged Research (CER) that is happening at McMaster University in partnership with Hamilton organizations and communities. We know that this important work needs to be celebrated and widely shared. CER Day will be a chance to do that and continue to build strong partnerships and potential research connections.
This event is open to McMaster students, staff, and faculty and to community partners and members. We invite you to participate in showcasing your research and engage in meaningful and collaborative conversations.
Please use this form to indicate your interest in participating and attending CER Day. We will be in touch in February 2024 to confirm final participants and share more detailed event information.
If you have any questions, please reach out to Shahad Al-Saqqar at alsaqqss@mcmaster.ca .
|
|
Let's celebrate the achievements of colleagues, friends, and those doing important social research with the potential to spark a brighter world. We welcome recommendations for kudos features (including for yourself)! Please send any features you would like us to mention by emailing us at: talk.to.spark@mcmaster.ca.
Kudos to Tina Fetner (Sociology Department) whose new book 'Sex in Canada' is now released. The book tackles taboos and shines a light on what happens in Canadian bedrooms. Learn more here. Tina and the new book was also featured on Feb 14th's episode of CTVs "The Social" .
Congratulations to Spark's Own Michelle Dion (and colleague Dara Z. Strolovitch) for their article "The American Political Science Review During the COVID-19 Pandemic" in Political Science & Politics. Read it here
Shoutout to McMaster Library who are now part of an agreement (CRKN has signed a new three-year, read-and-publish agreement with Oxford University Press) that will give McMaster researchers unlimited open access publishing in more than 350 Oxford hybrid journals at no cost to the author, and a reduced article processing charge for Oxford’s gold open access journals.
Learn more here.
|
|
|
|
|
