Fostering cultures of open qualitative research: Dataset 1 – Survey Responses

 This dataset was created and deposited onto the University of Sheffield Online Research Data repository (ORDA) on 23-Jun-2023 by Dr. Matthew S. Hanchard, Research Associate at the University of Sheffield iHuman Institute. 

The dataset forms part of three outputs from a project titled ‘Fostering cultures of open qualitative research’ which ran from January 2023 to June 2023:

· Fostering cultures of open qualitative research: Dataset 1 – Survey Responses

· Fostering cultures of open qualitative research: Dataset 2 – Interview Transcripts

· Fostering cultures of open qualitative research: Dataset 3 – Coding Book

The project was funded with £13,913.85 Research England monies held internally by the University of Sheffield - as part of their ‘Enhancing Research Cultures’ scheme 2022-2023. 

The dataset aligns with ethical approval granted by the University of Sheffield School of Sociological Studies Research Ethics Committee (ref: 051118) on 23-Jan-2021.This includes due concern for participant anonymity and data management. 

ORDA has full permission to store this dataset and to make it open access for public re-use on the basis that no commercial gain will be made form reuse. It has been deposited under a CC-BY-NC license. 

This dataset comprises one spreadsheet with N=91 anonymised survey responses .xslx format. It includes all responses to the project survey which used Google Forms between 06-Feb-2023 and 30-May-2023. The spreadsheet can be opened with Microsoft Excel, Google Sheet, or open-source equivalents. 

The survey responses include a random sample of researchers worldwide undertaking qualitative, mixed-methods, or multi-modal research. 

The recruitment of respondents was initially purposive, aiming to gather responses from qualitative researchers at research-intensive (targetted Russell Group) Universities. This involved speculative emails and a call for participant on the University of Sheffield ‘Qualitative Open Research Network’ mailing list. As result, the responses include a snowball sample of scholars from elsewhere.

The spreadsheet has two tabs/sheets: one labelled ‘SurveyResponses’ contains the anonymised and tidied set of survey responses; the other, labelled ‘VariableMapping’, sets out each field/column in the ‘SurveyResponses’ tab/sheet against the original survey questions and responses it relates to. 

The survey responses tab/sheet includes a field/column labelled ‘RespondentID’ (using randomly generated 16-digit alphanumeric keys) which can be used to connect survey responses to interview participants in the accompanying ‘Fostering cultures of open qualitative research: Dataset 2 – Interview transcripts’ files. 

A set of survey questions gathering eligibility criteria detail and consent are not listed with in this dataset, as below. All responses provide in the dataset gained a ‘Yes’ response to all the below questions (with the exception of one question, marked with an asterisk (*) below):

· I am aged 18 or over

· I have read the information and consent statement and above. 

· I understand how to ask questions and/or raise a query or concern about the survey. 

· I agree to take part in the research and for my responses to be part of an open access dataset. These will be anonymised unless I specifically ask to be named.

· I understand that my participation does not create a legally binding agreement or employment relationship with the University of Sheffield

· I understand that I can withdraw from the research at any time.

· I assign the copyright I hold in materials generated as part of this project to The University of Sheffield.

· * I am happy to be contacted after the survey to take part in an interview.

The project was undertaken by two staff:

Co-investigator:

Dr. Itzel San Roman Pineda

ORCiD ID: 0000-0002-3785-8057

i.sanromanpineda@sheffield.ac.uk

Postdoctoral Research Assistant

Principal Investigator (corresponding dataset author):

Dr. Matthew Hanchard

ORCiD ID: 0000-0003-2460-8638

m.s.hanchard@sheffield.ac.uk

Research Associate

iHuman Institute, Social Research Institutes, Faculty of Social Science