Data projects comprise data sources that were collected and/or generated in association with a particular qualitative or multi-method research project, as well as documentation describing the data and the processes through which they were collected/generated. Data projects may contain one or many types of data, and those data may have been used for various research purposes (e.g., drawing a descriptive or causal inference). QDR accepts data projects from all social science disciplines, and from related traditions (such as health sciences) that use cognate methods.
In the repository, data projects are marked by “flags” that indicate of what type they are. The types are related to three key purposes for which shared data can be used: secondary data analysis, understanding and evaluating published research, and teaching. A “Thematic Data Project” flag indicates that a project’s data could potentially be useful for secondary analysis. “Supplemental,” “ATI Data Supplement” and “Active Citation Compilation” flags indicate that the project accompanies a particular publication (article or book). Another flag, “Pedagogical Data Project,” marks projects that can be useful for teaching purposes. Data projects may be of more than one type. We elaborate more on this below.
Thematic Data Project
A Thematic Data Project comprises a coherent set of data sources collected and/or generated in association with a particular research focus, topic, set of questions, or project, as well as documentation describing the data and the collection/generation process. Thematic data projects may be, but are not necessarily, associated with a certain publication. These projects are likely to be useful for secondary analysis.
Supplemental Data Project
A supplemental data project is associated with a particular journal article or other publication. This type of project facilitates evaluation of the claims made in the publication, and provides additional context and background for the research and analysis that produced them. The title of such data projects begin with “Data for:”.
ATI Data Supplement
An ATI Data Supplement is a type of supplemental data project. It comprises the data and documentation that were used to enrich an article or other publication using “Annotation for Transparent Inquiry” (ATI). An ATI supplement is introduced by an “ATI Data Overview.” The bulk of the Data Supplement consists of a set of digital annotations containing analytic notes (discussing the generation and analysis of qualitative data and how they support textual claims/conclusions), source excerpts (and translations as needed), and the data sources themselves (when possible). You can find a quick introduction to ATI here, can learn more about its intellectual underpinnings here, and can follow these instructions to create an ATI Data Supplement. ATI Data Supplements may include an unrepresentative subset of the data a scholar consulted, collected, or generated when carrying out the research with which the Data Supplement is associated. As such, ATI Data Supplements are most often used to make qualitative or multi-method research more transparent.
Active Citation Compilation
“Active citation” is an earlier technique for making qualitative research transparent that was pioneered by Moravcsik (e.g., 2010, 2014, 2016). The approach entails digitally enhancing citations (in-text references, footnotes, and/or endnotes) that support contested claims or conclusions in a piece of scholarship by hyperlinking them to a Transparency Appendix (TRAX) where more rigorous, annotated versions of the citations appear. When the actual sources that underlie the activated citations can be legally and ethically shared, the TRAX includes hyperlinks to these sources, which are gathered in an active citation compilation.
Pedagogical Data Project
Instructors of research methods courses often use stylized data especially prepared to maximize student engagement with, and focus their attention on, the methods being taught. Such data are commonly derived from research data, but simplified and organized for instruction. Elman, Kapiszewski, and Kirilova (2014) discuss the use of such pedagogical data in qualitative methods training. You can find more teaching resources by QDR here.