Quality Handbook
- Preparation
- Data collection
- Data Processing
- Data analysis
- Finishing
- Practical items
- Project audits
About
The EMGO + Quality Committee
Mission
The Quality Committee (kwaliteitscommissie,KC) was established to in order promote the quality of research within the EMGO+ Institute for Health and Care Research. The KC’s mission is to systematically support and improve the research process.
Operations
The KC offers support in a number of ways. Firstly, the KC has created an electronic quality assurance handbook containing research guidelines. The handbook is available at www.emgo.nl
Secondly, the KC also runs audits. Annually, 15 projects are audited to examine the quality of the research process of individual projects and to provide support where possible. Furthermore, a themed audit is held every year using a sample of projects in order to obtain an overview of the quality of one specific aspect of the research process (e.g. back-ups, privacy, etc.).
Personal introductions are provided and introductory courses are organised annually in order to familiarise new researchers with the handbook and introduce them to the KC.
Finally, KC is also tasked to provide the EMGO+ board with solicited and unsolicited advice about quality issues.
Work area
The KC focuses on anything that can influence the quality of research. This primarily concerns the research process; that is preparation, data collection, data processing, data analysis and archiving. The KC work area starts where the scientific committee’s work ends. The scientific committee is concerned with research proposals: Projects that have not yet been started (of which a number never will be), whereas the quality committee is involved with research projects, i.e. projects that are already running. The KC’s responsibilities end at the point where the articles are written and published. This is where peer review comes in.
Quality handbook
The reasonably comprehensive quality assurance handbook has been created to help researchers set up and conduct (new) research. The quality handbook provides guidelines, tips and examples for conducting well-designed research. The guidelines outline the statutory issues (e.g. privacy, METC (Medical Ethics Committee), maintaining logbooks), and methodological and practical recommendations are provided for each step of the research process. The handbook is a dynamic entity: Every year new guidelines are added or existing guidelines adapted. The guidelines also contain questions that are used for the audits.
Project audits
A project audit is a dialogue between the researcher, project leader and two so-called auditors (one member of the KC and one senior researcher from the institute or two senior researchers with audit experience). An audit guide is available for the auditors. The researcher is asked to complete a self-evaluation prior to the audit. A question and answer session is held on the basis of the self-evaluation and audit questions from the guidelines contained in the quality assurance handbook. The aim is hold up a mirror to the researcher and project leader, reflecting what is going well and where improvements are needed. A report is made for each audit, which is signed by the researcher and project leader. A copy of the report is sent to the relevant professor. The audit reports are discussed in the KC. An anonymous report is produced each year of all the audit reports, which is submitted to the EMGO+ board along with a commentary from the KC and is subsequently distributed within the Institute.
The committee
The EMGO+ quality assurance committee consists of 8-9 members, who reflect the researchers and groups in the institute. The members of the KC undertake their activities for the committee alongside their daily work. Membership of the KC is, in principle, for a period of 3 years. The KC proposes new members of the committee to the EMGO+ board. The KC is supported by the EMGO+ quality assurance officer. The KC meets monthly and consults twice per year with the EMGO+ board.
The Quality Officer
The Quality Officer has an important role within the committee and the Institute. The Officer is secretary to the KC. He is also the contact point for the quality assurance handbook, and well versed in statutory issues and regulations, particularly in the area of dealing with confidential information. He has an advisory and supervisory role within the institute as well. The personal introductions in the quality assurance handbook and other information provision also belong to responsibilities of the Quality Officer.