Associate Researcher - "Disputed Facts: Fact-Checking Immigration Claims in an Era of Polarized ...

Associate Researcher - "Disputed Facts: Fact-Checking Immigration Claims in an Era of Polarized Knowledge."

£17.27 per hour

Associate Researcher

This is a one month, remote, hourly paid contract starting 15 September 2026.

Oxford Brookes University is seeking a part-time Postgraduate Research Assistant to support the BA/Leverhulme Small Research Grant-funded project "Disputed Facts: Fact-Checking Immigration Claims in an Era of Polarized Knowledge."

The successful candidate will help collect, prepare, organise, and analyse a corpus of textual data. They will support the development of a structured dataset and master metadata file, contribute to text preparation and analysis in R, and assist with qualitative research tasks. The role offers an opportunity to develop applied skills in computational text analysis, corpus management, mixed-methods research, and research on misinformation, migration, journalism, and epistemic authority.

• collect, clean, and organise textual data;
• support the creation of a master metadata file;
• contribute to lexicometric analysis using R and relevant open-source text-analysis packages;
• assist with frequency analysis, keyness testing, collocation/co-occurrence analysis, keyword-in-context analysis, and correspondence analysis, where appropriate;
• help with qualitative analysis of textual data;
• assist with interview-related research tasks, including preparation, transcript organisation, anonymisation, and data management;
• attend online project meetings and provide clear updates on progress;
• ensure research data are handled accurately, securely, and in accordance with University ethics and data-management requirements.

You will be undertaking postgraduate study, or hold a postgraduate qualification, in a relevant field such as geography, politics, sociology, communication/media studies, linguistics, migration studies, digital methods, journalism studies, or a related discipline.

You should have experience working carefully with textual data and an interest in one or more of the following areas: misinformation, immigration, fact-checking, journalism, digital media, political communication, discourse analysis, or public knowledge.

You will need strong organisational skills, attention to detail, and the ability to work independently with appropriate supervision. The role will involve careful data collection, cleaning, documentation, and analysis, so reliability and accuracy are especially important.

Applicants should have:

• postgraduate-level study or training in a relevant discipline;
• experience with qualitative or quantitative text analysis, corpus construction, digital media research, or mixed-methods social research;
• experience using R;
• ability to organise, clean, and document textual data accurately;
• good digital literacy, including confidence using spreadsheets or equivalent tools for structured data management;
• strong attention to detail;
• good organisational and time-management skills;
• ability to work independently and communicate progress clearly;
• willingness to learn project-specific data collection and analysis workflows.

The following would be advantageous, but are not all required:

• familiarity with packages such as quanteda, tidytext, tidyverse, or similar tools;
• experience with tokenisation, lemmatisation, frequency analysis, keyness testing, collocation/co-occurrence analysis, keyword-in-context analysis, or correspondence analysis;
• experience using NVivo or similar qualitative analysis software;
• experience with misinformation, fact-checking, migration/immigration discourse, journalism studies, or digital media research;
• experience working remotely as part of a research team.

This role provides an opportunity to contribute to a funded research project on a timely and politically significant topic. The successful candidate will gain experience in corpus construction, computational text analysis, qualitative analysis, and mixed-methods research design. They will also develop familiarity with research workflows linking R-based lexicometric analysis and NVivo-supported qualitative analysis, as outlined in the project methodology.

This role does not meet the minimum salary threshold required for Skilled Worker visa sponsorship under the UK points-based immigration system. Therefore, we are unable to offer sponsorship for this position.

At Oxford Brookes, inclusivity is one of our five guiding principles: we take positive steps to create an environment in which we celebrate, value and provide equal opportunity to all. We are committed to recruiting out of the widest possible pool and welcome applications from all suitably qualified candidates who embrace our values, regardless of their background.

As a Disability Confident Employer we guarantee to interview any disabled applicant who meets the essential selection criteria.