This study examines open qualitative human subjects research data and the experiences with open data policies of researchers who use this type of data. The goal of the overall project will be to generate empirical findings and use them to develop a conceptual and practical framework to help researchers and institutions frame their open data practices for qualitative human subjects data within existing technical systems and in accordance with legal, institutional, funding agency, and publisher requirements. This poster frames the problem of qualitative open data in the context of existing literature and policies and reports the findings of an exploratory pilot study comprising semi-structured interviews undertaken with six qualitative researchers from six disciplines. As the participants considered their own qualitative human subjects data in the context of open data policies, the concepts that emerged include: the situated, co-constructed, non-neutral nature of qualitative human subjects data; ethical obligations and logistical arguments for and against re-use of these data; the “stakes” or implications of the content of the data and its confidentiality; and metadata to support ethical and effective data re-use
