Official Launch of the Measurement Instrument Database for the Social Sciences (MIDSS)

The NUI Galway research centres funded by the Irish Social Sciences Platform (ISSP) under the Programme for Research in Third Level Institutions (Cycle 4) are delighted to announce the launch of the Measurement Instruments Database for the Social Sciences (MIDSS).
The development of MIDSS was supported through funding by the ISSP.

MIDSS is an open access online database of social science research instruments available at www.midss.ie. By April 2013, 320 instruments had been catalogued, with almost 10,000 visits to the site and 3,400 instruments downloaded. It is envisaged that researchers worldwide will submit their measurement instruments to the database, and that it becomes the first place that researchers consult when looking for measurement tools when conducting their own research. The ambition is that it will become the “go to” repository of shareable assessment instruments across the social sciences. Additional research resources will be available in the coming months and as well as DOIs for each instrument.

MIDSS will be important to social scientists for a number of reasons:
• It will serve as a repository for tests and measures that have been described in journals, dissertations, technical reports, and books
• It will enable researchers to trace the lineage of tests and measures over time
• It will significantly reduce incidence of researchers and students making up tests (and duplicating work that has already been done) when they cannot find one that suits their research
• It will support the improvement of tests and measure
• It will provide a database for researchers to ‘deposit’ measures that they have developed and increase the likelihood that they will be used and cited.
• It will increase the impact of authors’ works by making the primary data collecting tools available to others and this will lead to a secondary effect of increased citations for instruments that are used.

MIDSS will be formally launched on Thursday 30th May by Professor Chris Curtin, Vice President for Innovation and Performance, and you are invited to attend.

Launch Programme:

11.00 Welcome and Introduction by Dr. James Cunningham, Director of the Whitaker Institute, NUI Galway and PI for NUI Galway – Irish Social Sciences Platform (PRTLI 4).

11.20 Formal Launch of MIDSS by Professor Chris Curtin, Vice President for Innovation and Performance, NUI Galway

11.30 Demonstration by Dr. Paul O’Connor, Lecturer in Primary Care and Associate Director of the Whitaker Institute, NUI Galway

11.45 Tea/Coffee

*Whitaker Institute, Centre for Research on Life Stress, Centre for Disability Law and Policy, Child and Family Research Centre, Irish Centre for Social Gerontology, and Irish Centre for Rural Transformation and Sustainability

All Welcome!

Links

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