National Centre for Research Methods
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Big qualitative data: creative ways of working with qualitative analysis at scale
Full text linkThis resource is for anyone who is committed to the importance of qualitative research but also recognises the complexities of working with ‘qualitative data. In particular in this resource we pick up the challenges and possibilities of working with ‘big qualitative data’. This resource is for a range of career stages: you might be doing a PhD, research in the public sector or be a well-established academic. The kinds of data you work with could include diary studies, creative projects using multiple methods or analysing secondary data in the Mass Observation Archive. There are multiple forms that big data takes when we think about qualitative research and in this resource we try to speak to this range.
This document doesn’t provide all the answers but gives you the challenges, debates and resources you can consult and steps to take. There are some contentious debates within the field that we do not seek to resolve but instead indicate what these concerns are, and some resources or things to think about. The resource is authored by the organising team (Sophie Woodward, Laura Radcliffe and Kirsty Pattrick) and those who attended an Innovation Forum at The Keep in September 2025, as well as those who were unable to attend but have commented on this document. We are authors with differing backgrounds, interests and approaches but we come together here to put those interests and expertise into dialogue. We invite you, the reader, to join in this dialogue
Corpus Linguistics Approaches to Big Qual Data Analysis
Full text linkJustyna Robinson (University of Sussex) here outlines corpus linguistics as an approach to data analysis. This approach analyses patterns of meaning in language and she here outlines how computer-based methods can be used to analyse language in big qualitative data sets
Participatory Research with People Who Are or Were Homeless
Full text linkThis module presents three core principles for conducting participatory research with homeless populations, emphasizing the need to understand diverse social contexts, avoid harm, and maintain flexibility throughout the research process.
David Shallcross outlines essential considerations for researchers working with people experiencing or having experienced homelessness, focusing on three universal principles adapted for this vulnerable population. The presentation emphasizes understanding the social context and diversity within homeless experiences, implementing harm reduction strategies around exploitation and retraumatization, and maintaining flexible approaches that accommodate the practical realities and priorities of participants’ lives
Using Diaries in Social Research
Full text linkThis module demonstrates the practical application of diary methods in social research through two different organizational contexts, highlighting recruitment strategies, participant experiences, and the distinctive value of diary data.
Emma Wincup and Kirsty Pattrick share their experiences using diaries in social research from both charity and academic perspectives, with Emma’s “Grounded Voices” program focusing on financial hardship and Kirsty’s Mass Observation project collecting everyday life documentation. They explore practical aspects including recruitment approaches, digital platforms, participant engagement strategies, and analysis challenges, while emphasizing how diary methods offer unique flexibility and inclusivity that captures detailed experiences often missed by other qualitative approaches
A brief history of the National Centre for Research Methods
Full text linkThe National Centre for Research Methods (NCRM) is celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2024. This video timeline provides an overview of some of the centre's key milestones over the past two decades.
NCRM was founded at the University of Southampton in 2004 with funding from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).
Since then, it has led the advancement of research methods in the UK through an extensive array of innovative activities, from training courses to research projects.
The centre is now a partnership of three leading institutions – The University of Manchester, the University of Edinburgh and the University of Southampton – and 2024 marks a decade of this collaboration
Digital Footprint Management
Full text linkThis Methods Futures Briefing focuses on digital footprint management. It first explains what digital footprint management is. The following section describes possible developments. The briefing closes with an outline of potential implications for social research methods of such developments
NCRM Resource for trainers: Safety first – being trauma sensitive when delivering training
Full text linkNo trainer/educator sets out to cause upset or distress to participants on the course, nor is there an intention to exacerbate trauma, trauma being the sustained effects on functioning and wellbeing of harmful experience(s). Moreover, generally participants do not experience re-traumatisation from participation in trauma-related research or training. Yet it remains a risk if the trainer is inexperienced or has not considered potential risks; trauma-informed pedagogy is less well understood than trauma-informed care or even research.
Experiencing trauma is more prevalent than we may realise, and we need to be informed. This means understanding the role trauma may have played in our participants’ lives and planning accordingly as we are mindful of how this could be triggered or exacerbated through our training in terms both of methods of teaching, as well as the content.
This resource gives some basic steers to care-full, ethical practice so that we are aware of what to do if teaching makes participants distressed, as well as how we can modify our teaching to ensure that we are trauma informed. It also provides signposts to additional resources to learn more
Survey Data Collection Network (SDC-Net): The impact of Covid-19 on survey data collection methods in the social sciences
Full text linkThis is the final report of the Survey Data Collection Network (SDC-Net).
SDC-Net was a network of UK-based academic and non-academic partners including government departments, third sector and commercial research organisations, academics and major ESRC investments to share knowledge and collaborate in the area of survey data collection in social surveys as well as in setting the research agenda in the field. The network operated between December 2021 and April 2023.
The Principal Investigator was Olga Maslovskaya (University of Southampton) and the Co-Investigators are Gabriele Durrant (University of Southampton and NCRM), Lisa Calderwood (UCL), Gerry Nicolaas (NatCen) and Laura Wilson (ONS). The network activities were funded by the ESRC via the project “The impact of Covid-19 on survey data collection methods in the Social Sciences” as an additional funding stream of the ESRC-funded UK National Centre for Research Methods (NCRM).
The network included 107 members. The list of the organisations of the network members can be found in Appendix 1. Tim Hanson, who is the Head of ESS Questionnaire Design and Fieldwork in the European Social Survey (ESS), Ben Humberstone, who is the Head of Population Studies in Kantar Public, Sam Clemens, who is the Head of Probability Survey in Ipsos-Mori as well as Debrah Harding, who is the Managing Director of the Market Research Society (MRS), were project partners.
The ESRC recognised the importance of the activities of the previous network GenPopWeb2 which was also funded by the ESRC and the activities of SDC-Net were the continuation of the GenPopWeb2 with the wider scope addressing not only issues associated with online data collection in social surveys but the wider area of survey data collection in the UK
In Conversation: Jen Ross and Wayne Holmes – Critical Perspectives on AI in Education and Research
Full text linkIn the first part of NCRM’s In Conversation series on the topic of AI, Jen Ross and Wayne Holmes discuss key issues related to the introduction, use and implications of using AI tools in education research and applied practice.
Dr Jen Ross is a Senior Lecturer in Digital Education at the University of Edinburgh, Co-Director of the Centre for Research in Digital Education, and Education Futures fellow at the Edinburgh Futures Institute, where she is programme director for the MSc in Education Futures. Jen researches, teaches and publishes on online and open education, digital cultural heritage engagement, and digital cultures and futures.
Dr Wayne Holmes is an Associate Professor in the UCL Knowledge Lab, IOE (UCL's Faculty of Education and Society), at University College London. Having been involved in education throughout his life, Wayne brings a critical studies perspective to the connections between AI and education, and their ethical, human rights and social justice implications
Lessons from Covid-19 Data
Full text linkThis video features presentations from three researchers at UK data resources who discuss their approaches, conclusions and experiences surrounding Covid-19 data.
The speakers are: Dr Jools Kasmire, who gives an introduction to datasets available from the UK Data Service; Alle Bloom, who covers the response of the UK Data Service to the pandemic; Dr Rosie Mansfield, who presents evidence from four British longitudinal studies on the interrelationships between social isolation and loneliness and their correlates among older British adults before and during the lockdown.
These presentations were recorded for a webinar hosted by the Data Resources Training Network, titled Lessons from Covid-19 data, which took place on 30 April 2024