Project Summary

This demonstrator project considers the ways in which the potential archiving, distribution and sharing of multimedia qualitative datasets may impact upon research design and practice. Thus far there have been few explicit attempts to consider the consequences of qualitative data sharing and archiving for research design and methodological decision making. This project will consider the possibilities and challenges of archiving and preparing qualitative data for reuse, through the development and testing of web based interactive user guides, around an identified set of methodological dilemmas (for example ethical concerns, providing appropriate contextualization for the data, providing research chronologies, integrating different data modes such as textual and visual, and linking data to analyses and interpretations). The project will work with an existing multimedia qualitative dataset. It will have two main outcomes; an online guide (consisting of interactive guidelines and exemplars for data archiving and re-use); and a working model of a methodological route through our own existing dataset and analyses, in order to illustrate how the guidelines and protocols described in the online guide work for an actual project. The project will be based at the Cardiff School of Social Sciences, and will involve an active collaboration with ESDS Qualidata (UK Data Archive).

MIQDAS Web site