I think you could contribute, but some projects will be easier to contribute to than other. Some suggestions:
-Helping to update Wikipedia pages about different countries’ policy responses to COVID-19 would be helpful and a good introduction, because you’ll have collaborators to help you.
-Many of these questions you could make a start on and ask for feedback from Aaron Gertler or Effective Altruism Editing and Review or Effective Altruism Coronavirus Discussion groups on Facebook. Then you can post your work, making the limitations clear.
-I would be careful about doing surveys or complicated modelling for the first time right now (you can give it a shot it’s just really easy to get wrong). I’d also be thoughtful about interviewing people affected because they might be quite busy.
If there’s a particular question you’re interested in researching, feel free to message me to discuss how you’ll go about researching it, or you could even write up your plan on your shortform.
Is it possible to contribute to research if I’ve never worked on a similar research project and have no relevant expertise?
I think you could contribute, but some projects will be easier to contribute to than other. Some suggestions:
-Helping to update Wikipedia pages about different countries’ policy responses to COVID-19 would be helpful and a good introduction, because you’ll have collaborators to help you.
-Many of these questions you could make a start on and ask for feedback from Aaron Gertler or Effective Altruism Editing and Review or Effective Altruism Coronavirus Discussion groups on Facebook. Then you can post your work, making the limitations clear.
-I would be careful about doing surveys or complicated modelling for the first time right now (you can give it a shot it’s just really easy to get wrong). I’d also be thoughtful about interviewing people affected because they might be quite busy.
If there’s a particular question you’re interested in researching, feel free to message me to discuss how you’ll go about researching it, or you could even write up your plan on your shortform.
Note: I am not an expert in research methods!