Carefully Curating Qualitative Data: The Case for Qualitative Data Sharing and Reuse

Data sharing and re-use are becoming the norm in quantitative research. At the same time, significant skepticism still accompanies the sharing and reuse of qualitative research data on both ethical and epistemological grounds. Nevertheless, there is growing interest in the re-use of qualitative data for research (see Goodman, Lester & O’Reilly call for a special issue in TQR), as well as teaching (see e.g. Saldaña’s workshop at this congress using “authentic data”). In this presentation we make the case that data qualitative data can be shared ethically and we present ways in which they can be shared in a way that maximizes the potential for re-use. Based on the work of the Qualitative Data Repository (QDR), we describe the role of curation, understood as a collaborative process between researchers and data archivists, in ensuring that data are shared responsibly, in a way that makes them discoverable for re-use, and in a way that preserves context and detail crucial for effective re-use. Rather than taking the maximalist position that all qualitative can be shared and re-used, we suggest pragmatic ways in which common issues with sharing and re-use can be addressed. Throughout our talk, we employ examples from QDR’s practice to illustrate