Qualitative Data Resources: Qualidata UKDA Libby Bishop ESDS Qualidata, University of Essex Timescapes, University of Leeds St Catherines College, Oxford 2 July 2008

ESDS Qualidata function of the Economic and Social Data Service (ESDS) specialist service led by the UK Data Archive at the University of Essex acquires, provides access to, and support for, a range of qualitative datasets on a national scale responsible for enhancing qualitative data and documentation provides information and training resources for re-using qualitative data

UKDA: sources of data Data for research and teaching, used in all sectors, and for many different disciplines official agencies - mainly central government international statistical time series individual academics - research grants market research agencies public records/historical sources qualitative and quantitative links to UK census data access to international data via links with other data archives worldwide

NSPSCA screen shot

Qualitative data resources What is in the archive? How can I find it? How can I access it? How can I use it?

What is in the archive? diverse data types: in-depth interviews ; semi- structured interviews; focus groups; oral histories; mixed methods data; open-ended survey questions; case notes/records of meetings; diaries/ research diaries multi-media: audio, video, photos and text (most common is interview transcriptions) formats: digital, paper, analogue audio-visual

Archiving criteria impact of the study e.g., influence in its field or representing the work of a significant researcher complementary to existing data holdings popularity of the topic (exclusion, criminology) consistency with national research strategy (e.g., environment, security, inequality) methodological innovation (e.g., mixed methods) data with untapped analytic potential raw data

Collections – old and new Inheritance, Property and Family Relationships, (Finch) Framing of Terrorist Threats in United States and Russian Elections, (Oates) Developing Sustainable Technologies for Waste, (Fredrickson and Slater) Collaborative Wildlife Management and Changing Social Contexts in Peru, (Newing) Concepts of Healthy Eating Food Research, (Caplan) (forthcoming) And paper collections currently in process: Bell, Townsend, Pahl, and more

Qualitative data resources What is in the archive? How can I find it? How can I access it? How can I use it?

UKDA Catalogue screen shot

Qualitative data resources What do we have? How can I find it? How can I access it? How can I use it?

Qualitative data resources What do we have? How can I find it? How can I access it? How can I use it?

Ethical and consent considerations questions of confidentiality and agreements made at the time of fieldwork archived data should always conform to ethical and legal guidelines with respect to the preservation of anonymity when this has been requested by informants or guaranteed to them achieve this by various strategies –consent for archiving –controlling access (e.g., legal undertakings to protect confidentiality, licences, vetting) –editing the original data

Timescapes is about… Doing Research: Personal relationships, intimacy and family life £5 million, 5 years, 7 projects, 5 universities Building a data archive: Qualitative – text, image, audio, and video Longitudinal 400+ participants, 5+ years with multiple interactions objects Over half a terabyte of data

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