Author(s): John Doyle

Department: National Federation of Voluntary Bodies Providing Services to People with Intellectual Disability

Keywords: Audit; Intellectual Disability Research; Research Methodology; Trends; Database Submissions; Designs; Quality Indicator;

Reported: National Federation's website: http://www.fedvol.ie

Abstract: An audit of the National Federation of Voluntary Bodies’ intellectual disability research database was undertaken to determine the performance of research activity in member organisations, to identify the quality of research carried out in Ireland in intellectual disability research and to form a baseline on which to develop quality indicators for research in intellectual disability. The audit’s target audiences are researchers, National Federation member organisations, research department heads and researchers in services and any other groups involved in dissemination of research or carrying out research in intellectual disability.

Part 1 (The Audit) of this audit measures data collection methods, design types and other descriptors and quality indicators reported through a voluntary, self-reported, abstract submission template for the database. All abstracts submitted to the National Federation database since 2000 were included in the audit. This included a total of 61 abstracts of research carried out. The 61 templates were analysed quantitatively. The submission template had been used since 2000 and was updated to increase reliability and this report recommends further improvements to increase its reliability. Analysis of the 61 abstracts found that the most frequent topic of research in intellectual disability was services development. The most common methodologies employed were survey, scales and questionnaires in cross sectional designs.Triangulative techniques were not used in this case. Participatory methodologies were not used in this audit.

Part 2 (The Validation Exercise) of this audit was to ascertain the coverage and generalisability of the database to Irish intellectual disability research. 104 references were available through IDAAL and UL and NIHS databases that met the selection criteria of this study. 17 of these were National Federation database articles. 31 National Federation database articles were found through the other databases and through Google. This tells us that the database represents 16% of research available through big online databases such as IDAAL or UL. The database also contains a lot of project information and references not found elsewhere online (49%). We know that 39%of the database studies are peer reviewed which indicates the measurable standard the research is at; Also indicating the presence of a resource of ‘grey’ or unpublished literature available to people through www.fedvol.ie/research.

This indicates the value of the national federation database of research as a means of dissemination and information for member organisations and those interested in intellectual disability research.