TY - JOUR
T1 - Is it time to share qualitative research data?
AU - DuBois, James M.
AU - Strait, Michelle
AU - Walsh, Heidi
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported in part by Grant UL1 TR000448 from the National Center for Advancing Translational Science.
Funding Information:
Data are shared all the time. Large online data repositories exist where researchers can upload data files for use by other researchers (Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research, 2012; UK Data Archive, 2002−2016b). Some repositories contain thousands of data sets. The largest funding agencies in the United States and the United Kingdom require data sharing plans for research grants (Economic and Social Research Council, 2015; National Institutes of Health, 2015; National Science Foundation, 2014) So why does the idea of sharing qualitative data in particular merit special consideration (APA, 2015)? Before answering this question, it is necessary to consider what constitutes qualitative data.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 American Psychological Association.
PY - 2018/11
Y1 - 2018/11
N2 - Policies by the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation and scandals surrounding failures to reproduce the findings of key studies in psychology have generated increased calls for sharing research data. Most of these discussions have focused on quantitative, rather than qualitative, research data. This article examines scientific, ethical, and policy issues surrounding sharing qualitative research data. We consider advantages of sharing data, including enabling verification of findings, promoting new research in an economical manner, supporting research education, and fostering public trust in science. We then examine standard procedures for archiving and sharing data, such as anonymizing data and establishing data use agreements. Finally, we engage a series of concerns with sharing qualitative research data, such as the importance of relationships in interpreting data, the risk of reidentifying participants, issues surrounding consent and data ownership, and the burden of data documentation and depositing on researchers. For each concern, we identify options that enable data sharing or describe conditions under which select data might be withheld from a data repository. We conclude by suggesting that the default assumption should be that qualitative data will be shared unless concerns exist that cannot be addressed through standard data depositing practices such as anonymizing data or through data use agreements.
AB - Policies by the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation and scandals surrounding failures to reproduce the findings of key studies in psychology have generated increased calls for sharing research data. Most of these discussions have focused on quantitative, rather than qualitative, research data. This article examines scientific, ethical, and policy issues surrounding sharing qualitative research data. We consider advantages of sharing data, including enabling verification of findings, promoting new research in an economical manner, supporting research education, and fostering public trust in science. We then examine standard procedures for archiving and sharing data, such as anonymizing data and establishing data use agreements. Finally, we engage a series of concerns with sharing qualitative research data, such as the importance of relationships in interpreting data, the risk of reidentifying participants, issues surrounding consent and data ownership, and the burden of data documentation and depositing on researchers. For each concern, we identify options that enable data sharing or describe conditions under which select data might be withheld from a data repository. We conclude by suggesting that the default assumption should be that qualitative data will be shared unless concerns exist that cannot be addressed through standard data depositing practices such as anonymizing data or through data use agreements.
KW - Confidentiality
KW - Data sharing
KW - Qualitative research
KW - Research ethics
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85040726448&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1037/qup0000076
DO - 10.1037/qup0000076
M3 - Article
C2 - 30662922
AN - SCOPUS:85040726448
SN - 2326-3601
VL - 5
SP - 380
EP - 393
JO - Qualitative Psychology
JF - Qualitative Psychology
IS - 3
ER -