Introduction

The purpose of this toolkit is to assist qualitative and mixed methods researchers across the faculties of Social Sciences and Arts and Humanities in enhancing the transparency and rigour of their research by using Annotation for Transparent Inquiry (ATI). ATI was developed by University of Syracuse’s Qualitative Data Repository (QDR), Hypothesis (a non-profit software  company) and supported by Cambridge University Press. ATI is a tool that allows annotating digital publications and research materials, such as interview transcripts, field notes, codes, with the objective of providing additional insights that shaped qualitative and mixed-methods research.  Annotations can serve to document decision-making processes that shaped methodology and analysis, link data sources (stored in a data repository) and provide contextual information. QDR hosts and preserves annotations, ensuring long-term access and appropriate sharing controls. Research data can be stored in QDR or any other data repository. Annotations are managed via Hypothesis, which integrates them to digital articles. This collaboration between publishers, technology firms, and repositories enhances transparency and rigour of qualitative and mixed-methods research. 

To develop the toolkit, we first conducted an introductory training session on Annotation for Transparent Inquiry (ATI) with researchers from the social sciences, arts and humanities, delivered by Sebastian Karcher from QDR. After the workshop, a group of five researchers from the social sciences and humanities formed a working group. Across two workshops they reflected on the challenges and benefits of using annotations at different research stages. The first session focused on retrospectively annotating a finished piece. The second session centred on using annotations on a paper in progress. In both sessions, participant researchers shared their experiences and discussed strategies for integrating annotations at different stages of the research process. With these reflections and comments, the working group collaboratively developed this toolkit.