Research Analyst, Research Transparency & Data Accountability

The Research Analyst will join the Research Transparency & Data Accountability team under GRDS and contribute to advancing IPA’s Research Transparency Initiative. The goals of the initiative include: 1) Improving the transparency of IPA studies by offering assistance in sharing data in our repository and registering projects to the American Economic Association (AEA) registry; 2) Offering a service to researchers to check statistical code prior to publication; 3) Providing organization-wide guidelines and training on reproducible research to assist IPA’s countries offices. (See http://www.poverty-action.org/research-transparency for more information.)

Additionally, the Research Analyst will ensure the timely and accurate administration of IPA’s Institutional Review Board (IRB), in supporting promotion of research ethics at IPA. (See https://www.poverty-action.org/researchers/working-with-ipa/irb for more information)

Curating and checking data to release in IPA’s data repository (60%)

• Examining and checking data/code for usability prior to release and supporting IPA researchers with data publication.
• Running “code checks” as needed to ensure that shared data and code can reproduce tables in publications of IPA studies.
• Independently fielding requests from researchers for code checks, seeking out studies with data to be shared and communicating with researchers about their data and other materials.
• Managing further staff who conduct data curation and code checks (dependent on funding).
• Encourage and support Researchers’ registration of their projects and publications to the American Economic Association (AEA) registry.
• Project manage and administer the consolidation of IPA’s Dataverse with JPAL’s Dataverse.

Administering research ethics’ Institutional Review Board (IRB) at IPA (30%)

• Administration and review of IPA’s IRB, which includes conducting first review of all protocols submitted to IPA’s IRB (original applications, amendments, renewals and unexpected events) and determining risk level with support from Research Manager and IRB Chair.
• Remain up-to-date on IRB regulations as they apply to IPA IRB, in collaboration with the Research Manager and IPA IRB External Chair.
• Lead administration of monthly IRB meetings, which includes sending calendar invites, taking notes, sending materials to the IRB members and keeping accurate reports for IRB purposes.
• Continuously improve IRB processes (updating of forms and process in Salesforce) and for developing metrics to track the efficiency and effectiveness of IPA IRB
• Support the Research Manager and External IRB Chair to build a culture of research ethics at IPA. This includes conducting literature reviews of ethics regulations and ethics oversight within the international development sector, writing/supporting writing of memos, blog posts and white papers on ethical research.
• Support capacity building of IPA staff globally for research ethics and IRB by developing training materials for IRB and ethics.

Contribute to the continued development of IPA’s Research Transparency Initiative (10%)

• Producing training materials to disseminate to staff in IPA’s country offices as needed, including technical guidelines on data and code management as well as tutorials in using Github and other tools.
• Support the development and hosting of training sessions during Global Staff Trainings and other transparency workshops (as funding permits)
• Producing fundraising documents and assisting with conversations with funders, together with the Research Manager.

Required:

• A Bachelor’s degree in economics, public policy, social science or related fields
• Experience conducting analyses using statistical software in a work setting (strong Stata skills are a firm requirement, additional familiarity with R, SAS and SPSS a plus).
• High attention to detail and organizational ability.
• Enthusiasm for high quality and transparent research practices, excellent critical thinking skills, and clear written/verbal communication style.
• Ability to work well with a team in a collegial environment.
• Interest in learning about research ethics in international setting required
• Excellent management and organizational skills and willingness and interest in performing administrative tasks
• Fluency in English with strong communication skills

Preferred:

• Understanding of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) design.
• Familiarity with open science and research transparency is desired, but not required.
• Previous experience working with of Institutional Review Boards
• Experience conducting research in a developing country is a strong plus