Transforming Research Communities: Data Archiving, Sharing and Reuse in Qualitative Social Sciences

Supporting innovative and ethically robust approaches to data archiving and re-use in the qualitative social sciences.

This project aims to curate a network of qualitative research data collections and strengthen researcher engagement in a linked community of practice. 

The focus is data collections from qualitative Studies of Childhood, Education & Youth (SOCEY). The project explores the approaches required to build and sustain community ownership of a new collection, and the best practice principles, challenges and affordances in archiving and sharing qualitative data.

Start date 3 June 2019
Expected completion date 21 October 2019
Investment by ARDC $49,999
Co-investment partners
University of Melbourne
Lead node
1 Develop SOCEY repository
This repository will be housed by the Australia Data Archive, and will support the archiving of research data collections from qualitative studies of childhood, education and youth
2 Develop SOCEY website
A website will provide a portal to the SOCEY repository and an avenue to showcase, disseminate and share research data and findings. It will support wider debate and understanding regarding ethical and methodological issues, and encourage new collaborations.
3 Archive data collections
Qualitative data will be placed in the SOCEY Repository in accordance with the FAIR principles. A small set of research teams will pilot the process to prepare their data for archiving in the SOCEY repository by the end of September.
4 Guidelines Development
These guidelines will be published on the SOCEY website and will highlight best practices principles, challenges and affordances in archiving and sharing qualitative data.
5 Completion of project
Project outcomes will be presented at an ARDC Data and Services Summit in October 2019.

Core features

SOCEY website and community of practice:
This website will support a community of practice for strengthening researcher engagement in curating data collections for future use by others.
SOCEY repository
The repository will provide access to data from a small number of research projects from qualitative studies of childhood, education and youth.
SOCEY guidelines
The project will produce materials and guidelines for best practice in data sharing for qualitative research.

Who is this project for?

  • Qualitative researchers with interests in childhood, youth and education
  • Policy makers and community groups concerned with childhood, youth and education

What does this project enable?

This project enables a greater understanding of building a Research Data Commons for qualitative researchers including archiving their data, and community building. Ongoing support through a website, blog, data repository and community of practice is envisaged.

Handy resources

University of MelbourneVisit