Archiving and Sharing Qualitative Research Materials with Qualiservice
Workshop for (post-)doctoral students by the DFG Research Training Group “Contradiction Studies – Constellations, Heuristics, and Concepts of the Contradictory” with the Bremen International Graduate School of Social Sciences (BIGSSS) and the Research Data Center (RDC) Qualiservice.
Dr. Jan-Ocko Heuer and Dr. Michaela Rizzolli (RDC Qualiservice)
Presentations will be in English, but contributions can be made in German.
For empirical research in the social and cultural sciences and humanities, research data and materials are often both a starting point and a result of research projects. The (long-term) storage and sharing of these research materials within the scientific community does not only increase transparency and comprehensibility of research but also allows to re-use these materials using other research methods or posing other research questions. This applies in particular to data and materials from qualitative research, as these materials are often particularly comprehensive, complex, and information-rich, thus allowing various kinds of re-use. On the other hand, due to the sensitivity and complexity of these materials, sharing and re-using qualitative research materials is still rare.
The Research Data Center (RDC) Qualiservice (www.qualiservice.org/), located at the University of Bremen, is the only RDC in Germany that archives and provides qualitative research materials from every field of qualitative research for scientific re-uses in research and teaching. It offers the highest ethical, legal, and technical standards for sharing research materials, taking discipline- and data-specific requirements into account, and organizing data sharing in strong cooperation with data-giving researchers. Moreover, Qualiservice offers advice and support for preparing research materials and their documentation throughout the research project, and provides comprehensive data curation. The “Research Training Group Contradiction Studies” cooperates with Qualiservice and provides funding to its doctoral and post-doctoral researchers to archive and share their qualitative research materials with Qualiservice.
This workshop will introduce the RDC Qualiservice and make participants familiar with ethical, legal and data-specific aspects of collecting and sharing qualitative research materials. It should thus be of interest for any empirical research project that uses qualitative materials, especially if there is an interest in archiving and sharing these materials within the scientific community. The workshop will combine presentations and discussions with practical exercises. Participants are invited to bring questions and experiences from their own research.