The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) has awarded a grant of $248,040 to the Qualitative Data Repository (QDR) to support innovation in achieving openness in research based on qualitative data. The award by the RWJF will assist QDR in further developing and promulgating Annotation for Transparent Inquiry (ATI). ATI, which QDR is developing in collaboration with Hypothes.is, is based on the concept of “open annotation.” Open annotation allows for the generation, sharing, and discovery of digital annotations across the web.  ATI delivers open data and materials to publishers’ platforms with pinpoint precision, while still allowing data repositories to ensure that the content is findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable, and that human participants are protected.

The award signals the importance of promoting and advancing the concept of open annotation to enhance the credibility of qualitative research, and thus its capacity to empower social change. With the RWJF support, PI Colin Elman, professor of political science at Syracuse University, co-PI Diana Kapiszewski, associate professor of government at Georgetown University, and their collaborators at QDR and Hypothes.is will advance ATI, encourage its early adoption by research communities, and engineer requirements for service models and technical features that support authors using ATI to achieve openness in qualitative research.

The Qualitative Data Repository is hosted by the Center for Qualitative and Multi-Method Inquiry at the Moynihan Institute, part of Syracuse University's Maxwell School for Citizenship and Public Affairs.

02/07/17