Data story of Maastricht University: qualitative FAIR data management

9 July 2024

Applying FAIR principles to qualitative data requires a careful balancing act between making data available for reuse, protecting respondents’ privacy and staying true to your epistemological beliefs. Data Stewards from Maastricht University have written a data story on this.

In the data story, they discuss the online courses and manuals, including the DANS guide ‘Making Qualitative Data Reusable‘, that are available to provide researchers with tools for managing qualitative data. The story is illustrated with two published data files in DataverseNL as examples of good Research Data Management (RDM) for qualitative data, where steps have been taken to protect subjects’ personal data, such as anonymising sensitive information from transcripts or creating an edited version of confidential documents. In the case of highly sensitive data, it is better to publish only the description.

The sample dataset used here are:

Maastricht University uses DataverseNL to publish their data. DataverseNL is a research data repository offered jointly by DANS and participating institutions. DANS manages the technical infrastructure and the institutions using DataverseNL are responsible for assigning rights to user accounts, managing and curating the deposited research data within DataverseNL.

Read here the entire data story. More information about DataverseNL can be found here.