The aim of the visit was to learn from CLOSER's experience in setting up and managing such a catalogue, in the hope that it can inform our own efforts to develop a similar resource for ACH. We spoke with Jon Johnson (technical lead), Becky Oldroyd (metadata manager), and Oliver Lyttleton (programmer).
Jon Johnson explained that one of the main goals of the CLOSER catalogue is to help researchers understand data. He noted that finding data is rarely the issue — the real challenge lies in making sense of it. As he put it, “No point in finding something if you can’t understand it.”
Currently, the CLOSER catalogue includes metadata for 19 longitudinal cohorts based in the UK. Not all cohorts are eligible for inclusion; they must be established longitudinal studies (with at least two waves of data collection), and their research focus must align with that of other cohorts in the catalogue.
The CLOSER team walked us through their process and the tools they use. They rely on a mix of existing and custom-built software — for example, to extract DDI Lifecycle-compliant metadata from SPSS files and to ingest online questionnaires for annotation. Each variable is mapped to a topic to support data discovery. Once ready, metadata is uploaded to the catalogue using Colectica. Other tools used for project management, documentation, and communication include Airtable, Confluence, and Slack.
Some of the work is done by the cohorts themselves; other parts are handled internally by CLOSER staff. To ease the burden on cohorts, CLOSER tailors its processes to fit each cohort’s workflow rather than enforcing a rigid standard.
We also discussed what’s involved in managing a catalogue like CLOSER. To keep cohorts engaged, Six-weekly meetings are being organised to discuss progress. CLOSER also offers training days for new cohorts joining the catalogue.
All in all, it was a very inspiring visit — and we're aiming to apply many of the lessons we learned as we build our own ACH data catalogue!