Resources


QDR creates in-depth guidance on a wide range of topics to support your work.

Guidance

Managing Data

QDR offers a series of web pages addressing key topics in managing research data from data management planning to formatting and depositing data, all with a focus on the needs of qualitative researchers.

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Human Participants – General Guidance

There are important questions related to interacting with human participants that should be considered from the early planning stages of a research project. QDR provides guidance for safely and ethically collecting – and potentially sharing – information from human participants.

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Templates for Researchers

QDR provides a growing list of template to help researchers at various stages of their research, including suggested informed consent, correspondence templates, and DMP language.

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Planning Data Management

A data management plan (DMP) outlines the steps you will take and the practices in which you will engage – on an ongoing basis – to successfully manage your data as you conduct your research.

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Formatting Data

The formats in which data are created and stored determine their legal and technical fit for sharing in QDR and for the longevity of access to them.

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Principles of Human Participant Protection

It is your ethical and legal responsibility as a researcher to demonstrate that your work does not create undue harm for the people whom you involve in it, or that any harm the research may cause is balanced by the potential social benefits of the research.

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Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) play a critical role in the practical application of ethical research principles. The key responsibility of IRBs is to assure that investigators whose research involves human participants follow appropriate steps to protect project participants’ rights and welfare.

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Informed Consent

Informed consent is crucial for conducting ethical research. Special considerations for such consent apply when researchers plan to later share data with others.

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De-Identification

When private/sensitive identifying information is collected as part of the research process and human participants request confidentiality, you may need to de-identify the data before sharing them with other scholars.

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Access Controls

Placing appropriate conditions on the availability of some of the data provided to you by human participants when you share these data can help protect project participants’ private/sensitive information.

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QDR Data for Teaching

A non-exhaustive list of projects we want to highlight as being particularly well-suited for secondary uses by undergraduate and graduate students.

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Deposit Process

Deposit Process

How do you deposit data with QDR? Learn about the steps of a data deposit, deposit fees and waivers, and typically turnaround times.

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Research

Working with Sensitive Research Data (WSRD)

The WSRD project seeks to develop a multi-stakeholder epistemic community, drawing representatives from various institutions in the American academic ecosystem into sustained dialogue about how to protect human participants while pursuing research openness.

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Policies

QDR Curation Policy

Curation involves a series of steps that make data easily findable and maximize their potential for use and re-use. QDR offers multiple types of services related to curation, including assistance to researchers before and after they deposit data.

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Data Access Policy

The licenses that QDR uses, and agreements that users who deposit and download data sign, are intended to maximize the use and re-use of the data while protecting human participants and complying with legal requirements.

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Data Breach Policy

The purpose of this policy is to publicly establish procedures, timelines, and contacts for the response of the Qualitative Data Repository (QDR) to data breaches. This policy is publicly available on QDR’s website and may be updated as necessary.

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Handling Sensitive Data

QDR classifies data as sensitive based on the degree to which it they contain personally identifiable information and the degree of harm to which research participants could be exposed if the data were matched to them.

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QDR Governance

Two advisory boards offer guidance to and assist QDR with the development and administration of the repository.

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