Suchergebnisse

In this brief article, we argue that undergraduate methods training acquired through coursework is a critical prerequisite for effective research and is beneficial in other ways. We consider what courses on qualitative research methods, which are rarely taught in undergraduate political science programs, might look like. We propose that instruction initially should involve specialized texts with standardized exercises that use stylized data, allowing students to focus on the methods they seek to master. Later in the sequence, research questions can be brought to the fore, and students can undertake increasingly complex research tasks using more authentic data. To be clear, students following the path we suggest are still learning methods by using them. However, they are beginning to do so by executing research tasks in a more controlled context. Teaching methods in this way provides students with a suite of techniques they can use to effectively and meaningfully engage in their own or a faculty member's research. We also raise some challenges to using qualitative data to teach methods, and conclude by reprising our argument. Adapted from the source document.

Data sharing is increasingly perceived to be beneficial to knowledge production, and is therefore increasingly required by federal funding agencies, private funders, and journals. As qualitative researchers are faced with new expectations to share their data, data repositories and academic libraries are working to address the specific challenges of qualitative research data. This article describes how data repositories and academic libraries can partner with researchers to support three challenges associated with qualitative data sharing: (1) obtaining informed consent from participants for data sharing and scholarly reuse, (2) ensuring that qualitative data are legally and ethically shared, and (3) sharing data that cannot be deidentified. This article also describes three continuing challenges of qualitative data sharing that data repositories and academic libraries cannot specifically address—research using qualitative big data, copyright concerns, and risk of decontextualization. While data repositories and academic libraries cannot provide easy solutions to these three continuing challenges, they can partner with researchers and connect them with other relevant specialists to examine these challenges. Ultimately, this article suggests that data repositories and academic libraries can help researchers address some of the challenges associated with ethical and lawful qualitative data sharing.