Data Access And Research Transparency Research Articles

Hypotheses on Agony: Field Research in a Genocidal Context

ABSTRACTDrawing on my field research experiences in Rwanda, Bosnia, and Cambodia, I present a personal narrative that creates a vivid picture of field research in challenging environments and contemplates what research ethics look like in post-genocide societies. Working in violent, traumatized, or oppressive conditions reveals the fragility of traditional political science methods when confronted with the realities of human suffering. Part of the intrinsic value of field interviews is the unique interactive experience between researcher and respondents, which can never be fully replicated. Addressing the controversies about research methods, I argue that the Data Access and Research Transparency (DA-RT) versions of protection, replicability, and transparency undermine the integrity of field research and can threaten the security of researchers and respondents. This article also reflects on the personal experience of working in three post-genocide societies, including the effects of trauma and empathy. Despite the difficult subject matter and personal challenges, I continue to champion field research for the unmatched understanding it offers researchers. This reflection encourages a broader discussion about the value of human interaction in the research process, even if those interactions do not fit neatly into a methodological template.

Qualitative Replication as a Pedagogical Approach to Teaching Research Methods

ABSTRACTThe importance of replication has been a major matter of discussion among political scientists for decades. However, in the past five years, the issue has gained greater traction, with many major journals adopting official standards for Data Access and Research Transparency (DA-RT). At the same time, scholars suggest the pivotal role that replication might play in methods training for students. Unfortunately, these conversations have been limited in that they emphasize quantitative methods and training of graduate students. This article seeks to fill this gap by offering commentary on the author’s experience in introducing a qualitative replication project in an upper-division undergraduate course. The students in the course replicated Ross’s (2004) influential article on the “resource curse,” but the assignment framework can be adopted for various topics and contexts.

A new approach to data access and research transparency (DART)

Recent debates on transparency and replicability suggest that JIBS needs to update its approach on data access and research transparency (DART). We propose a series of initiatives, knowing well that there is a balance to be struck. There are clear benefits on the one hand, chief among these the potential for learning and knowledge accumulation, and equally manifest challenges on the other: the imperative to respect privacy, confidentiality, and intellectual property rights. Without addressing these challenges, will there be the high-quality data on which the benefits depend? We present access and transparency objectives, and set out how an actionable and effective approach towards DART will be implemented, but also address ethical, legal, and organizational challenges of concern to us as a scholarly community.

La iniciativa da-rt en la ciencia política estadounidense: discursos acerca de una política de transparencia y acceso a datos

<p>Los debates metodológicos en la ciencia política estadounidense se han profundizado a lo largo de las últimas décadas, marcadas por el Movimiento Perestroika de contestación de preferencias teóricas y metodológicas en la disciplina en Estados Unidos y, recientemente, por el esfuerzo de aprobación de una política de transparencia y acceso a datos, la Data Access and Research Transparency (da-rt). La iniciativa ha dado lugar a que investigadores cualitativos y cuantitativos adopten distintas posturas con respecto a los significados de ciencia, transparencia y la propia profesión del politólogo. En este contexto, nuestro objetivo es ofrecer un panorama de los discursos sobre la da-rt ante el debate metodológico subyacente a su implementación y sus potenciales desdoblamientos en la ciencia política en América Latina.</p>

Analytic Transparency, Radical Honesty, and Strategic Incentives

ABSTRACTAs a pillar of Data Access and Research Transparency (DA-RT), analytic transparency calls for radical honesty about how political scientists infer conclusions from their data. However, honesty about one’s research practices often means discarding the linguistic template of deductive proceduralism that structures most writing, which in turn diminishes the prospects for successful publication. This dissonance reflects a unique dilemma: transparency initiatives reflect a vision of research drawn from the biomedical and natural sciences, and struggle with the messier, iterative, and open-ended nature of political science scholarship. Analytic transparency requires not only better individual practices, such as active citations, but also institutional strategies that reward radical honesty. Journals can provide authors with protected space to reveal research practices, further blind the review process, and experiment with special issues. More broadly, analytic openness can be mandated through procedural monitoring, such as real-time recording of research activities and keystroke logging for statistical programs.

Research Replication: Practical Considerations

ABSTRACTWith the discipline’s push toward data access and research transparency (DA-RT), journal replication archives are becoming increasingly common. As researchers work to ensure that replication materials are provided, they also should pay attention to the content—rather than simply the provision—of journal archives. Based on our experience in analyzing and handling journal replication materials, we present a series of recommendations that can make them easier to understand and use. The provision of clear, functional, and well-documented replication materials is key for achieving the goals of transparent and replicable research. Furthermore, good replication materials enhance the development of extensions and related research by making state-of-the-art methodologies and analyses more accessible.

The Rush to Transparency: DA-RT and the Potential Dangers for Qualitative Research

What is the impact of the recent Data Access and Research Transparency (DA-RT) initiative and the Journal Editors Transparency Statement (JETS) on scholars working with qualitative data? Analysis finds DA-RT insufficiently sensitive to the needs of qualitative data and focuses on four inter-related reasons why DA-RT needs to be revised before being widely adopted by political science journals: (1) space constraints that hinder full journal presentation of the analysis of qualitative data; (2) ethical concerns about protecting human subjects, and the time needed to prepare such data before publicly sharing them; (3) costs of data collection and the right of first usage; and (4) a potentially chilling effect of DA-RT on certain types of research topics. Analysis of the author’s own journey from econometric and survey analysis to narrative interviews with people in vulnerable situations, facing moral dilemmas, illustrates why DA-RT needs additional safeguards for qualitative data and methods. Given the increasing importance of qualitative data, and its ability to lend insight into critical political topics, the author argues that implementing the current version of the DA-RT initiative could hinder political science’s ability to address important political questions. Thus DA-RT must be modified to address the special needs of qualitative data.

Research Openness in Canadian Political Science: Toward an Inclusive and Differentiated Discussion

AbstractIn this paper, we initiate a discussion within the Canadian political science community about research openness and its implications for our discipline. This discussion is important because the Tri-Agency has recently released guidelines on data management and because a number of political science journals, from several subfields, have signed the Journal Editors’ Transparency Statement requiring data access and research transparency (DA-RT). As norms regarding research openness develop, an increasing number and range of journals and funding agencies may begin to implement DA-RT-type requirements. If Canadian political scientists wish to continue to participate in the global political science community, we must take careful note of and be proactive participants in the ongoing developments concerning research openness.

Legitimizing Political Science or Splitting the Discipline? Reflections on DA-RT and the Policy-making Role of a Professional Association

We have been invited by Politics & Gender's editors to review the origins and current standing of the Data Access and Research Transparency (DA-RT) policy, an effort initiated by the eponymous American Political Science Association (APSA) Ad Hoc Committee and led primarily by Colin Elman, Diana Kapiszewski, and Arthur (“Skip”) Lupia. We have not been bystanders in this unfolding history, and in keeping with feminist and interpretive epistemologies that inform our work and that tie positionality to knowledge claims (e.g., Haraway 1988), we include mention of our own involvement (see Mala Htun's 2016 parallel account of her activities). Herein lies one of our main points in assessing DA-RT: from the perspective of interpretive, feminist, and some other qualitative methods, transparency as an epistemological mandate is not new. On the contrary, it is widely accepted, and expected, within certain epistemic communities (noted also in Yanow and Schwartz-Shea 2014); it needs no set of new rules imposed from above, by journal editors and others, for its instantiation. Our assessment includes questions about the relationship between APSA and DA-RT, as the association's support has colored DA-RT's reception. Part of what we seek to account for is resistance on the part of political scientists of various sorts—and not only those in the interpretive community, which we know best—to the DA-RT initiative and even to the participatory Qualitative Transparency Deliberations (QTD) process designed by Alan Jacobs and Tim Büthe (2015) at the invitation of the APSA organized section Qualitative and Multi-Method Research (QMMR; see, e.g., Isaac 2016). Even as we see changes in representations of DA-RT in response to critiques, we are concerned that those questioning the substance of DA-RT and the process of its adoption by APSA (in the Ethics Guidelines) and various journals are being represented by its architects as “either not paying attention to what we have been doing or [as] purposely misrepresenting the project,” including presenting “conspiracy theories, enemy narratives, and speculation about others' motives” (Elman and Lupia, 2106, 45, 50). These very words speak to DA-RT's potential to marginalize dissenters and even split the discipline. How has U.S. political science arrived at this pass?

Notes from the Editors

In this issue of the editors’ notes, we introduce the new submission guidelines for the APSR. Two years ago, in the Fall of 2014, we committed to implementing the guidelines put forward by the Data Access and Research Transparency (DART) Initiative. This process has been ongoing since changes were made to the APSA Ethics Guidelines in 2012 (prior to our taking over as editors of the APSR). The new APSR submission guidelines have, in part, resulted from that process. However, we have fashioned these guidelines after also consulting with many constituencies in the association, and have carefully taken into consideration the concerns expressed. As a result, we believe that these new APSR submission guidelines will better promote transparency than the system we currently use and yet are flexible enough to accommodate various research traditions and approaches. Finally, we believe that it is our responsibility to implement these new guidelines, and this responsibility should not be left to the future editorial team. We will not “kick this down the road.”

Data access and research transparency (DA-RT): A joint statement by political science journal editors

Data access and research transparency (DA-RT): A joint statement by political science journal editors

Data Access and Research Transparency (DA-RT): A Joint Statement by Political Science Journal Editors

Data Access and Research Transparency (DA-RT): A Joint Statement by Political Science Journal Editors

Data Access and Research Transparency (DA-RT): A Joint Statement by Political Science Journal Editors

Data Access and Research Transparency (DA-RT): A Joint Statement by Political Science Journal Editors

Notes from the Editors

We would like to begin this issue with an announcement. As you may know, we, as editors of the APSR, along with the editors of many other leading political science journals, have committed to implementing the principles recommended by the APSA Ad Hoc Committee on Data Access and Research Transparency (DART). The statement from the DART group can be found here: http://www.dartstatement.org/. We are currently in the process of revising our submission guidelines to be consistent with these recommendations. We are very mindful of the diversity of research traditions in our discipline, and realize that “one size does not fit all”—so we wish to proceed with due care. However, we believe that these are timely changes that need to be made to promote research transparency and trust in our scholarship, and hence we are committed to implementing these changes in 2016. We will be discussing the proposed changes at the annual meeting in San Francisco at a special panel, and we invite everyone to attend.

Data Access and Research Transparency (DA-RT): A Joint Statement by Political Science Journal Editors

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Making DA-RT a Reality

Calls for greater data access and research transparency have emerged on many fronts within professional social science. For example, the American Political Science Association (APSA) recently adopted new guidelines for data access and research transparency. APSA has also appointed the Data Access and Research Transparency (DA-RT) ad hoc committee to continue exploring these issues. DA-RT sponsored this symposium. In addition, funding agencies like the National Institutes for Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) have expanded requirements for data management and data distribution. These pressures present challenges to researchers, but they also present opportunities.