Louise Corti, the UK Data Service’s Director of Collections Development and Producer Relations, discusses progress made in 2016 in qualitative data archiving and data exchange.
Louise informs us, “as we head into a new year, I am taking this opportunity to recap on some significant progress made in 2016 in the practice of qualitative data archiving and data exchange. These are topics that are dear to my heart, perhaps even obsessively so!”
This past year has bought to fruition five asia rcs data really positive outcomes in qualitative data. The first is that the UK Data Service has reached the 1000 mark for the number of unique qualitative and mixed methods data collections; we can boast the largest collection in the world on a national scale. The second is the praise received for training in the sharing and archiving of qualitative data to existing survey archives around the world. The third is the launch of the open access Special issue of Sage Open on Digital Representations: Re-Using and Publishing Digital Qualitative Data edited by Louise Corti, Nigel Fielding and our own Libby Bishop, bringing together a collection of articles with a social science or social historical perspective that present the current state of the art in the field of re-using and publishing digital qualitative data. Fourth, is real progress on the quest for data export and exchange from Computer Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis Software (CAQDAS) packages, pioneered by me and colleagues since the late 1990s, now being addressed collectively by the software vendors themselves. Finally, the great news that a small working group has been set up with Europe’s leading experts on CAQDAS to prepare and promote open teaching datasets from the UK Data Service for teaching the software, data management and archiving, and qualitative research methods.