Background

Data holds the answers to all manner of questions and analysis methods can extract those answers - linking the two is “data preparation”. Anyone interested in working with data will likely need to know at least some of the principles outlined.

Learning contents

In the social sciences, “qualitative data” refers to various kinds of data – such as interview transcripts, observation protocols, field notes, pictures, audio or video recordings, and material artefacts – that are less structured than “quantitative data” and thus cannot – and often should not – be easily transformed into numerical relatives for statistical analysis. By contrast, qualitative data are often heterogeneous, complex, very information-rich, highly context-dependent and sensitive – thus posing particular ethical, legal and practical challenges for research data management (RDM), including data protection and informed consent, anonymization, documentation, and sharing beyond the research project of origin. This hands-on workshop aims to make participants familiar with major challenges of preparing qualitative social science data for (qualitative or quantitative) analysis and to introduce them to good practices and RDM tools to deal with those challenges. Particular attention is given to appropriate research documentation using a ‘study report’ and various context materials, and to the anonymization/pseudonymization of qualitative text data, including an introduction to the tool ‘QualiAnon’.

The following topics will be primarily addressed:

• What are qualitative data? Examples and characteristics
• Why, for Whom and How are qualitative data important?
• Producing and preparing qualitative data for research/analysis
• Focus: finding, re-using and sharing qualitative data
• Focus: documenting qualitative data and contexts
• Focus: anonymizing qualitative (text) data

Learning objectives

Practical insights and experiences with management of qualitative research data.

Prior knowledge

none

Technical requirements

• Own laptop

• Connection to Wifi via eduroam or equivalent access (see: https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/zfn/wifi/overview-wifi)

The Lecturer

Dr. Viola Logemann Viola Logemann is a Research Associate Post-Doc and RDC Research Data Management Expert for Qualitative Social Science Data at Qualiservice RDC of the University of Bremen

Find out more about the Data Train lectures on our website.

This event is organized by