What is the Experience Sampling Method (ESM) Item Repository?
The ESM Item Repository is an open science initiative, which aims to support the further development of Experience Sampling Methodology (ESM) research by creating an open repository of existing ESM items. To achieve this, we established the ESM Item Repository in 2018 as part of a three-phase project. The repository portal launched in October 2019 and to date the repository contains 900+ items, contributed by five different research groups, across six different countries.
Why do we need the ESM Item Repository?
Tackling issues with ecological validity and recall bias, the study of psychological phenomena and their contexts in everyday life has become an increasingly popular way to approach research questions outside of the laboratory. With technological developments and the increasing availability of smartphones, investigating behaviors and thoughts as they occur in daily life has also become more feasible. These trends have contributed to a rapid increase in new research questions being addressed through ESM. Yet, there is little work on the psychometric validity or reliability of ESM items (Wright & Zimmerman, 2019), therefore variability in item development practices and the assessment of conceptual and psychometric quality is likely considerable. As there are no gold standards for ESM research or officially validated questionnaires, many researchers construct their own ESM items or reuse items from others’ studies. As a result, the degree to which multiple different items are used to measure the same or closely related constructs is, at present, largely unknown and challenging to assess without an open and inclusive repository. . Psychological science in general is currently undergoing an open science revolution, as researchers seek to improve the transparency and reproducibility of their work. Clinical psychology and psychiatry research, where many ESM studies are conducted, has so far not been at the forefront of conversations regarding open science practices (Tackett et al., 2017). By opening up our ESM materials and rigorously psychometrically validating them, we hope to make a significant contribution to transparency and reproducibility in ESM and clinical psychology research.
Our aims:
The goal of the ESM item repository project is to address these issues and to create an open repository of ESM items. Moreover, the primary aims of the ESM item repository are to:
What is the plan for the ESM Item Repository?
The repository is a three-phase project, where broadly, we will collect ESM items, quality assess and psychometrically validate them.
How do I refer to the ESM Item Repository in publications and other documents?
If you use insights from the ESM Item Repository, please cite as: Kirtley, O. J., Hiekkaranta, A. P., Kunkels, Y. K., Eisele, G., Verhoeven, D., Van Nierop, M., & Myin-Germeys, I. (2020, October 1). The Experience Sampling Method (ESM) Item Repository. https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/KG376
