Question driven equivalence

Data harmonization allows data collected by different studies or at different time periods to be more similar and comparable. Whether this is done retrospectively or prospectively the data for a particular harmonization will often be constrained by the specifics of the research question. Data providers, or metadata providers have a wider role in assisting a large number of potential users of the data, to discover data items which are or could potentially be comparable in a range of unspecified scenarios. Such an undertaking requires a shift in perspective from “harmonized data” to “harmonizable data” and constructing a generic framework to enable that to be carried out in a sustainable and scalable way. The panel discussion will bring together the experiences of a number of data and metadata providers and a software provider currently working to create such discoverable resources. Collectively the panel will be able to speak to a range of social science domains, political science, mental health, aging studies and multi-purpose cohort studies on how these challenges can be addressed using the DDI-Lifecycle metadata standard