Table 1
Themes and examples of quotes they describe.
| THEME | INTERVIEW QUOTE |
|---|---|
| Some FIP Problems Are not Unique | ‘[It’s…] not the context they’re from […] I think about what’s appealing or possible [… and] the incentives of the profession are set up to do […whatever is] quick. It’s easy [to use just whatever data…] you can get your hands on, but I think that affects more fields […]. I think it’s the doom loop we might have in terms of […incentives for the…] profession.’ |
| Many Types and Sources of Data Exist | ‘I’ve mostly been focusing on the secondary data analysis. Some of the data sets I’ve used […] are Add Health, the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health… [the] National Survey of Child and Adolescent Wellbeing… But then, sometimes I just like… I need a statistic for a grant application or a statistic for a paper.’ |
| Creatively Combining Data Can Cause Problems | ‘A lot of the public health people who are coming in to look at gun violence don’t have the social science background… and they are missing some pretty key control variables or things that criminologists have known for decades… or they use data from criminology that they are not familiar with, and there are fatal flaws.’ |
| Political Constraints Are Often Manageable | ‘In Colorado [… they have a] contractor who’s a data science person. They have all the linked data… whether or not you have SNAP, whether you got shot, whether you had criminal justice involvement… Colorado’s well-funded, super motivated.’ |
| Not All Researchers Want to Share Their Data | ‘I submitted a FOIA request three years ago asking for something I know they have and that [is…] on their website. There are other public health researchers that have this data… [but…] they won’t share it with you unless they are a co-author.’ |
| Data Harmonization is Contentious | ‘[They are…] deciding which measures they will harmonize, for the six study teams… There are some unique constructs… I don’t think they can mandate, because for the harmonizing process, it’s like all the six projects, study teams, have to decide that they want to use it and then adopt […each measure].’ |
| The Necessity of Grants | ‘If we get the funding, we’re going to collect the clinical data, which we’ve harmonized… I don’t even know if that’s going to be hard because we haven’t started to do that, because we haven’t even applied for that part of the grant yet.’ |
| Commonalities: The Needed Research Environment | ‘I’ll say the three points, and ideally, in the future, the data. Number one is more current data. Second is more restricted data. Even the health department’s data is two years behind. The third one is the data linkage. We have all the data pieces, but […] we can’t link together to see a comprehensive picture.’ |
Table 2
Data resources by category.
| CATEGORY | DATA SOURCE |
|---|---|
| Health Data | Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) |
| CDC Center for Injury Prevention | |
| CDC WISQARS (Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System) | |
| CDC WONDER | |
| Michigan emergency department data (bought the data) | |
| National Readmissions Database | |
| National Trauma Database | |
| TQIP (Trauma Quality Improvement Program) | |
| UMC Trauma Center Data | |
| Crime Data | CJARS (Criminal Justice Administrative Records System) |
| Domestic Violence Surveillance (DSVS) | |
| FBI Supplementary Homicide Reports | |
| Gun Violence Archive | |
| ICPSR Firearm Data Repository | |
| NACJD (National Archive of Criminal Justice Data) | |
| National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) | |
| NIBRS (National Incident-Based Reporting System) | |
| National Violent Deaths Reporting System | |
| Police department data | |
| Rapid Employment and Development Initiative (READI) Chicago | |
| School Crime Supplement (SOC) | |
| UCR (Uniform Crime Reporting Program) | |
| Social and Demographic Data | American Community Survey |
| Add Health (National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health) | |
| Childhood Opportunity Index | |
| FACTS National Survey | |
| FYI Study, Panel survey data | |
| National Firearm Attitudes and Behaviors Study | |
| NSCAW, National Survey of Child and Adolescent Wellbeing | |
| Social Vulnerability Index | |
| Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System | |
| Educational Data | Department of Education’s data |
| Michigan Child Welfare System | |
| Custom Data | Created own dataset |
| Court documents | |
| Electronic Medical Records (from their hospital system to track admissions of gunshot injuries) | |
| Local shelters, next of kin interviews | |
| Police files, medical examiner data | |
| Toxicology reports | |
| News and Media Data | AP News |
| Newspapers | |
| USA Today |