METHODOLOGICAL ISSUES IN QUALITATIVE DATA SHARING AND ARCHIVING THE PROJECT TEAM CONTACT Dr Bella Dicks Cardiff School of Social Sciences Cardiff University Glamorgan Building King Edward VII Avenue Cardiff CF10 3WT Tel: +44(0) URL: Bruce MasonAmanda Coffey Matthew WilliamsBella Dicks MIQDAS has been exploring the methodological implications of archiving, distributing and sharing multimedia qualitative data sets. The project has been working with an existing multimedia data set in order to consider the interface between data sharing, research design and methodological decision making. Data generated and stored in a variety of media present particular challenges for effective, integrated and ethical archiving and potential reuse. The project has thus been able to build up a picture of the challenges, tasks and dilemmas involved in developing complex and contextualised qualitative data environments. THE PROJECT The difficulties confronting researchers wishing to ‘archive’ methodological information and frameworks along with their datasets have been explored. The volume, particularity and complexity of this information enhances the need to consider web-based and digital platforms for archiving and data sharing. Outputs will include:  an online guide to preparing qualitative data, designs and methodological decisions for re- use and archiving  an exemplar designed to illustrate how methodological contexts can be incorporated into qualitative data archiving in the form of a methodological trail The project has considered the ways in which methodological contexts can inform the preparation of qualitative data for reuse. The project outputs will be concerned with addressing the following issues: the ethical dimensions of preparing multimedia qualitative datasets for reuse the provision of contextual information to enable appropriate re-use of qualitative datasets the challenges of archiving data generated and stored in a variety of media the possibilities and challenges of including analyses and interpretations as part of the archived material OUTPUTS ONLINE GUIDE The Online Guide discusses and illustrates how researchers might document their methodology in a way that allows re-users to make the best use of the data generated. It discusses a number of exemplars illustrating four major dilemmas facing researchers preparing their data for re-use. Researchers need to consider how to: ensure multimedia data can be contextualised so that inherent problems of ambiguity, data reduction and re-usability can be minimised decide upon what contextual information to provide, both methodological and substantive, and how best to describe it in relation to data generation issues organise the dataset in a way that allows re-users to identify data records, understand the evidence base and navigate through the dataset the ethical dimensions of deposition through considering the legal and regulatory frameworks as well as the ethical dilemmas of re-use METHODS TRAIL The Methods Trail is a fully worked-out and interactive example of how a project’s methodology might be represented electronically. It is designed to enable future re-users to understand how a dataset was generated from actual fieldwork processes. It documents the methods adopted in an ethnographic project on the production and reception of scientific knowledge at a science discovery centre. The Trail illustrates the kinds of information about methodological principles and processes that could be presented in order to take advantage of the opportunities afforded by hypermedia technology. Designed to be both accessible and reflexive, it presents a ‘warts and all’ account of research design and execution. wesc18-comsc.grid.cf.ac.uk/EHE/trails/methods/methods-cover.html Access to the Methods Trail, hosted by the Wales E-Science Centre, is password-protected. Contact the project team for access. The dataset being used for this project was originally generated by the team for a project funded as part of the ESRC Research Methods Programme. Primary fieldwork was conducted at an interactive science discovery centre, where our substantive research focus was based around the production and consumption of ‘science’ in the context of an educative, entertainment setting. Ethnography for the Digital Age was a methodological project designed to explore the possibilities of utilising digital and hypermedia technologies for qualitative work. The fieldwork generated an extensive multimedia dataset, archived in digital form including audio and video materials, photographs, scanned documents and ethnographic fieldnotes. The experiences of archiving multimedia qualitative data, alongside the provision of necessary methodological and contextual information underpin the MIQDAS project. WORKING WITH MULTIMEDIA QUALITATIVE DATA QUADS DEMONSTRATOR PROJECTS This exploratory project was funded under the ESRC Qualitative Archiving and Data Sharing Scheme (QUADS), a small initiative running from April 2005 to October Co-ordinated by ESDS Qualidata at Essex, the scheme is dedicated to the mission of learning more about sharing, representation and re-use of qualitative data, in all of its disparate shape and forms.