Ongoing
NAVIGATE
Navigating towards open and responsible research practice in experimental medicine with the Charité quality compass
Background / Rationale
As emphasised in the 2014 Lancet article series Increasing value, reducing waste, research quality as a key element of effective translation needs to be strengthened in biomedical research studies. However, there is a lack of knowledge or shared understanding about what exactly research quality means, pointing to the need for a structured approach to the construct of quality in biomedical research.
Objectives
The project aims to develop and test an instrument for assessing quality-driven research practices in experimental biomedicine as part of the COMPASS monitoring and evaluation system. The project’s goal is to provide researchers and research teams at Charité with a tool, the Charité Quality Compass, to evaluate open and responsible research practices as a means of scientific rigour.
Methodology
Operationalisation, i.e. the conversion of abstract concepts into their empirical measurements: The starting point is the concept of open and responsible research, a means of research quality to be "broken down" into component parts, i.e. dimensions, subdimensions and eventually observable, measurable items, that precisely define individual variables of this abstract concept.
Implications
The project’s product will be the Charité Quality Compass, an indicator system for measuring the quality of experimental biomedical research. While the web application of this indicator system will support researchers interested in assessing the quality of their research practices, the professional version of the Charité Quality Compass will serve as a building block of COMPASS, the monitoring and evaluation system of the BIH QUEST Center. The Charité Quality Compass is designed to support researchers, teams and decision-makers at Charité and beyond, aiming to improve research quality by identifying the status quo and providing guidance for enhancing research quality and thereby improving the translational impact of biomedical research.
Further Information
Funder
This project is supported by a Max Rubner Award from the Stiftung Charité.
