UCSF Guides: Qualitative Research Guide: Sharing Qualitative Data

Resources for Sharing Qualitative Data

Many biomedical and population health journals and funders now require researchers to make their de-identified research data publicly available when they publish their results. This includes the 2023 NIH Data Management and Sharing Policy.

A context-consent meta-framework for designing open (qualitative) data studies
This article examines ethical and practical issues encountered by UK-based psychologists utilizing open qualitative datasets.
Example UCSF DMS plans
NIH Data management plans from UCSF researchers. Includes examples from mixed methods research.
NIH Data Management Policy and UCSF Qualitative Research
This is a recording of a session hosted by UCSF HRPP and UCSF Library about the impact of the NIH Data Management and Sharing policy on qualitative researchers
Qualitative Data Management Plans
Example Data Management Plans from qualitative researchers. Note that these do not follow the NIH format but have similar language that can serve as inspiration.
Resource Participant Views Regarding Qualitative Data Sharing
This 2020 article by Mozersky et al. presents findings from interviews with 30 individuals who participated in sensitive qualitative studies to explore their understanding and concerns regarding qualitative data sharing. The vast majority supported sharing qualitative data so long as their data were deidentified and shared only among researchers. However, they raised concerns about confidentiality if the data were not adequately deidentified and about misuse by secondary users if data were shared beyond the research community.
Webinar on the Qualitative Data Repository
Recording of a UCSF webinar with the Qualitative Data Repository (QDR).

De-Identifying Qualitative Data

Guide to De-identifying Qualitative Research
This guide from the Qualitative Data Repository discusses best practices for dealing with direct and indirect identifiers in research
Sharing Human Participant Data
Guidance on de-identifying qualitative data from the Social Science research Council (SSRC)
Guide to Social Science Data Preparation and Archiving
ICPSR repository guide to preparing data for sharing

Qualitative Data Repositories

The following data repositories are excellent platforms for sharing qualitative data.

Qualitative Data Repository
The Qualitative Data Repository (QDR) is a dedicated archive for storing and sharing digital data (and accompanying documentation) generated or collected through qualitative and multi-method research in the social sciences. Submitted datasets undergo rigorous curation and can be made available via various levels of access restrictions. Free for UCSF researchers through our institutional membership. Read more about UCSF institutional membership
openICPSR
A service of the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR), openICPSR is a self-publishing repository for social, behavioral, and health sciences research data. Researchers with sensitive datasets can use openICPSR's restricted-use data options to securely share their research with qualified investigators. See the guide to depositing data for a step-by-step guide.
Dryad
Dryad is an open-source, research data curation and publication platform. UCSF is a proud partner of Dryad and offers Dryad as a free service for all our researchers to publish and archive their data. Datasets published in Dryad receive a citation and can be versioned at any time. Dryad is integrated with hundreds of journals and is an easy way to both publish data and comply with funder and publisher mandates. Learn more about our Dryad membership

Language for grants: Dryad is an NIH-compliant repository that ensures long-term preservation and access with Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs), versioning, creative commons licenses, ORCID and FundRef identifiers, and search engine discoverability.