Research Guides: Qualitative Research: Qualitative Data Management, Preservation and Sharing

Data Management Planning

University Library Data Management Planning Website
Tools and tips to help you plan for, and manage your data.
Qualitative Data Repository Data Management Advice
QDR offers a series of web pages addressing key topics in managing research data: Planning Data Management, Data Management Plan Checklist, Preparing Data for Deposit, Formatting data

Data Preservation and Sharing from QDR and ICPSR

Qualitative Data Repository
QDR curates, stores, preserves, publishes, and enables the download of digital data generated through qualitative and multi-method research in the social sciences. The repository develops and disseminates guidance for managing, sharing, citing, and reusing qualitative data, and contributes to the generation of common standards for doing so. QDR’s overarching goals are to make sharing qualitative data customary in the social sciences, to broaden access to social science data, and to strengthen qualitative and multi-method research.
ICPSR
ICPSR welcomes and encourages deposits of digital data. Depositing data into ICPSR is free. Deposits are made using a secure data deposit form to describe the data collection and upload content. Deposits should include all data and documentation necessary to independently read and interpret the data collection.

Disciplinary Repositories

There are many discipline-specific repositories where researchers can choose to deposit their data. Discipline-specific repositories often better accommodate specific disciplinary needs, but not all disciplines have a repository which is why the U-M Library created Deep Blue Data.

Deep Blue Data (UM)
Extensive, multi-disciplinary list of repositories
List authored by Open Access Directory, hosted by School of Library and Information Science at Simmons College.
Registry of Research Data Repositories (re3data)
DataONE
A repository for environmental data.
Data PASS - Data Preservation Alliance for the Social Sciences
Dataverse Project
A repository for social science data (a collaboration between the Institute for Quantitative Social Science and Harvard University).
Dryad
A general-purpose repository in the Sciences.
Open Context
A repository for archaeological and related data.

Guidance for De-identifying Qualitative Data

QDR's De-identification Advice
The Qualitative Data Repository's guide for de-identification of qualitative data. Advice for muting direct and indirect identifiers, and guidelines for the process and documenting the process you use.
ICPSR's Guide to Preparing Qualitative Data for Deposit
Advice and examples of ways to de-identify qualitative data before deposit.