The objective of this project is to provide guidance to the Centre, researchers, and research ethics committees on applying the principles of the Centre’s Data Management Framework to research that involves the collection use, storage and or sharing of qualitative data. This Framework envisages that ultimately, all Centre funded or affiliated research projects will be expected to contribute to accessible, sustainable national research or operational data collections with ongoing agreed access, visibility to others, custodianship, governance, and standardised data dictionaries. It is however recognised the application the FAIR principle to qualitative social data presents ethical, epistemological, and methodological challenges and complexities that are different and more significant than for other types of data. This project is designed to explore and address these challenges.
Specifically, the project addresses the following research questions:
- What are the most recent challenges and approaches to storing and sharing qualitative social data (particularly data raising from post-disaster research and research with Indigenous communities) in Australia and internationally? What are the potential third-party options for qualitative data custodianship and storage?
- What are the views of key stakeholders on the benefits, challenges, and current state of play for storing and sharing qualitative data in natural hazards research?
- What concerns do research ethics committees have with respect the storing and sharing of qualitative data relevant to disaster research? How can these concerns be addressed by researchers and the Centre?
This project comprises four stages of work:
- Stage 1 – a review of the most recent challenges and approaches to storing and sharing qualitative social data in Australia and internationally drawn from a scoping review of peer reviewed and grey literature and related websites as well as key informant interviews.
- Stage 2 - an empirical study considering the views of key stakeholders on the benefits, challenges, and current state of play for storing and sharing qualitative data in natural hazards research.
- Stage 3 - develop and test a set of hypothetical HREC (human research ethics committee) applications relevant to the long-term storage and sharing of qualitative data.
The applications and related HREC feedback on them will be reviewed with 10-15 qualitative researchers in a series of 3-4 small focus group discussions.
The outcomes of this project will provide a strong foundation and clear pathway for the Centre and its researchers to implement the effective collection, use, curation and sharing (where feasible) of qualitative research data in accordance with the Centre’s Research Data Management Framework.
They will enable the Centre to support its researchers and associated research ethics committees to apply the FAIR and CARE Principles carefully, ethically safely and appropriate national research to qualitative social data while complying with Australian legal and ethical obligations for research with human subjects and sensitive data.
They will support to the goal of contributing to accessible, sustainable national research data collections by specifically addressing the concerns and challenges associated with the storage and sharing of qualitative and sensitive data.
