News Archive

NCRM Director Patrick Sturgis proves there was a 2017 election youthquake

NCRM Director Patrick Sturgis has written a blog post for the London School of Economics and Political Science on the concept of the 2017 general election experiencing a 'youthquake'.

The term 'youthquake' refers to the surge of support that Labour received from the youth vote in the election. The British Election Study team ...

NCRM Co-Director Dave Martin awarded OBE for services to Geography

NCRM Co-Director David Martin has been awarded an OBE in the Queen's New Year Honours 2019 for his services to Geography and Population Studies.

David's research in geographical information science focuses on new techniques for population mapping, leading to the system of 'small areas' - used by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) ...

Communicative methodology: doing research for social impact

Overcoming inequalities in schools and learning communities is a current concern for many countries. Doing this through research requires a methodological approach oriented not only to describe and explain reality, but to look for solutions to the challenges that systematic underserved populations face in their daily lives. Aligned to the transformative ...

Show me the data: research reproducibility in qualtiative research

In quantitative methods, reproducibility is held as the gold standard for demonstrating research integrity. But threats to scientific integrity, such as fabrication of data and results, have led to some journals requiring data, syntax and prior registration of hypotheses to be made available as part of peer-review. While qualitative research reproducibility ...

Expert elicitation techniques – why are they important?

It is not always possible to collect quantitative data to estimate a wide variety of population parameters. There may be logistical, ethical or physical barriers that prevent data collection. Therefore, there are often gaps in quantitative models that need to be filled in other ways. Frequently, we turn to scientific and ...

Researching ageing: methodological opportunities and challenges

Gerontology is the study of ageing across the life course, and is a large and varied area of research, spanning many disciplines. In 2014, the median age of the UK population exceeded 40 for the first time¹. The UK population is ageing, that is, the proportion of older people is increasing ...

Can a computer do qualitative analysis?

It seems that everywhere we look, researchers are applying machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) to new fields. But what about qualitative analysis? Is there a potential for software to help a researcher in coding qualitative data and understanding emerging themes and trends from complex datasets?

Firstly, why would we want ...

Identity boxes: data collection through objects

As our understanding of research and data has changed, so have data collection methods. Consequently, qualitative researchers are actively seeking to expand traditional interview and survey techniques, looking to reduce the power differential between researcher and participant and getting closer to participants' experiences and emotions. This was also the starting point ...

Response latencies as indicators of survey data quality

I’m going to begin this article by asking you to answer a survey question:

In the last 12 months, how often, if at all, have you visited a science museum or science centre?

- Once a month or more

- Several times in the past 12 months

- Once in the past 12 months

- Not ...

Do participatory visual methods give voice?

Participatory visual methods are those in which research participants are active in shaping the project as co-producers of visual knowledge. They can be traced back to two main sorts of approaches: use of visual data as stimulus in research (for example photo-elicitation) and visual data as the product of research (e.g. ...