Unlocking the potential of standardised scales through metadata

Standardised scales, also known as summated scales or validated questionnaires, are a group of related questions that measure an underlying concept. These scales are valuable research tools as they are cost-and time- effective to implement, and allow researchers to reliably measure concepts across samples and over time. The use of standardised scales also enhances the comparability of research data. However, finding information (i.e. metadata) about standardised scales is challenging and time-consuming. Information is typically scattered across multiple sources and documents, if available at all, and permission is sometimes required to access the scale. Additionally, some scales have multiple versions that include a subset of the original items, and it can be difficult to trace these versions back to the original. It is also difficult to find information about where these scales have been used in existing research. CLOSER aims to address these challenges by making information on multiple standardised scales openly accessible to researchers. We have gathered and documented up-to-date, comprehensive metadata about the scales used in the CLOSER Discovery studies in one centralised, publicly available platform: CLOSER Discovery. Users can now find information about the name, citation, question items (both the original and other versions), topics measured (e.g. alcohol consumption, physical health, depression), and their usage in the CLOSER Discovery study questionnaires and datasets for 10 standardised scales. We are preparing to add metadata for an additional 10 scales to CLOSER Discovery in early 2025. To our knowledge, CLOSER Discovery is the only platform providing such detailed metadata on standardised scales, enabling researchers to identify where scales and used both within and across studies. This poster will describe the process of creating comprehensive standardised scale metadata, the benefits of this metadata for researchers, and our future plans.