TY - JOUR
T1 - Examining Data Repository Guidelines for Qualitative Data Sharing
AU - Antes, Alison L.
AU - Walsh, Heidi A.
AU - Strait, Michelle
AU - Hudson-Vitale, Cynthia R.
AU - DuBois, James M.
N1 - Funding Information:
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This research was supported in part by a grant from the National Center for Advancing Translational Science ( UL1 TR002345). The effort of A.L.A. was supported in part by the National Human Genome Research Institute (K01HG008990).
Funding Information:
Second, sharing data supports compliance with the requirements of some of the largest funding agencies and journals. In the United States and the United Kingdom, the largest funding agencies require researchers to describe their plan for sharing data (Economic and Social Research Council [ESRC], 2015; National Institutes of Health, 2015; National Science Foundation, 2014). These agencies are the largest funders of qualitative research, yet in the United States, qualitative data sharing has yet to become the norm (Corti, 2000; DuBois et al., 2017). In the United Kingdom, advances have been made in qualitative data sharing but are still ongoing (Corti & Van den Eynden, 2015). In addition to expectations of funding agencies, journals are increasingly calling for data sharing to foster transparency and scientific integrity (Nature, 2016; Science Magazine, 2016; Taichman et al., 2016). Many journals have signed on to the Transparency and Openness Promotion (TOP) guidelines from the Center for Open Science initiative (Center for Open Science, n.d.; Nosek et al., 2015).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017, © The Author(s) 2017.
PY - 2018/2/1
Y1 - 2018/2/1
N2 - Qualitative data provide rich information on research questions in diverse fields. Recent calls for increased transparency and openness in research emphasize data sharing. However, qualitative data sharing has yet to become the norm internationally and is particularly uncommon in the United States. Guidance for archiving and secondary use of qualitative data is required for progress in this regard. In this study, we review the benefits and concerns associated with qualitative data sharing and then describe the results of a content analysis of guidelines from international repositories that archive qualitative data. A minority of repositories provide qualitative data sharing guidelines. Of the guidelines available, there is substantial variation in whether specific topics are addressed. Some topics, such as removing direct identifiers, are consistently addressed, while others, such as providing an anonymization log, are not. We discuss the implications of our study for education, best practices, and future research.
AB - Qualitative data provide rich information on research questions in diverse fields. Recent calls for increased transparency and openness in research emphasize data sharing. However, qualitative data sharing has yet to become the norm internationally and is particularly uncommon in the United States. Guidance for archiving and secondary use of qualitative data is required for progress in this regard. In this study, we review the benefits and concerns associated with qualitative data sharing and then describe the results of a content analysis of guidelines from international repositories that archive qualitative data. A minority of repositories provide qualitative data sharing guidelines. Of the guidelines available, there is substantial variation in whether specific topics are addressed. Some topics, such as removing direct identifiers, are consistently addressed, while others, such as providing an anonymization log, are not. We discuss the implications of our study for education, best practices, and future research.
KW - data archiving
KW - data repositories
KW - data sharing
KW - qualitative data
KW - qualitative research
KW - research ethics
KW - secondary data use
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85040740665&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/1556264617744121
DO - 10.1177/1556264617744121
M3 - Article
C2 - 29226747
AN - SCOPUS:85040740665
SN - 1556-2646
VL - 13
SP - 61
EP - 73
JO - Journal of Empirical Research on Human Research Ethics
JF - Journal of Empirical Research on Human Research Ethics
IS - 1
ER -