Managing, sharing and re-using qualitative data: Approaches that integrate data protection, research ethics and research interests

In numerous research projects, researchers generate a rich variety of qualitative research data. It is generated through the application of different research methods and manifests itself in different data types and formats. In their heterogeneity, these data allow insights into people's everyday lives from different perspectives. Qualitative research data is rich and often offers analytical potential for further research. However, in comparison to quantitative social research, where the secondary use of data is established practice, qualitative data is still used rather hesitantly. This is where the article comes in. Infrastructurally established approaches to data sharing, that take into account data protection and research ethics aspects and enable FAIR data sharing of qualitative data, are presented. It is based on the solutions of various Research Data Centers (RDCs) of a network of qualitative research data infrastructures (QualidataNet), which was established as part of the National Research Data Infrastructure in Germany. The QualidataNet network is open to all RDCs, repositories and other archiving partners that hold qualitative data. It enables as a ‘central point of entry' 1) to provide researchers with easier access to qualitative data, to support the management of qualitative data and to help finding suitable archiving partners and 2) to promote the exchange among data providers and the development of best practices for the management, sharing and reuse of qualitative data. The article addresses how ‘cooperative data management’ makes it possible to integrate and accompany important steps of data preparation for data sharing into the research process, so that synergies also arise for the primary research itself.