Since last year, the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation – DFG) has been supporting the implementation of QUALISERVICE as a nationwide data service center (DSZ) for qualitative social science research data. Previous measures of the infrastructure project include the establishment of a safe center for confidential data preparation, the further development of the anonymization tool, the establishment of the service center with search portal, data delivery service and help desk, and measures for quality assurance. The DFG’s commitment within the framework of the Special Subject Collection Folklore Studies and Ethnology will enable QUALISERVICE to establish an area for ethnological research data over the next three years. “This means that more data formats than before – such as audio and video recordings, field notes, and observation protocols – can now be archived in a secure environment and made available for protected subsequent use in research and selected materials for teaching,” explains Professor Betina Hollstein, project manager at SOCIUM.
Intensive Cooperation with Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
This success is the result of intensive cooperation with the Special Subject Collection Folklore Studies and Ethnology (FID SKA) at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. QUALISERVICE participated in the renewal proposal of the Special Subject Collection, which has now been approved by the DFG. This form of cooperation between a data service center (DSZ) and a Special Subject Collection (FID) represents a first in the infrastructures of qualitative social research. The aim is to establish QUALISERVICE as a specialist repository for qualitative ethnological research data in order to be able to offer an adequate solution throughout Germany for the complex archiving situation of the sometimes highly sensitive research data.
Unique Service for All Types of Qualitative Research Data
QUALISERVICE is located at the SOCIUM – Research Center on Inequality and Social Policy of the University of Bremen and is headed by Professor Betina Hollstein. The archiving is organized together with the data archive PANGAEA – Data Publisher for Earth & Environmental Science and the Bremen State and University Library (SuUB). The information technology side of the internal data management is operated together with the PANGAEA data archive. For mixed-methods studies, a coordinated archiving and a reciprocal reference system will be set up together with the GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences. So far, QUALISERVICE’s work has focused on qualitative interview studies. With the participation in the Special Subject Collection Folklore Studies and Ethnology (FID SKA), QUALISERVICE’s services will be extended to include qualitative research data in its entirety.
Additional Information:
www.qualiservice.org (German only)
www.socium.uni-bremen.de/
www.ub.hu-berlin.de/de/literatur-suchen/fachinformationsdienste/ssg-volks-und-voelkerkunde/ssg-volks-und-voelkerkunde.html (German only)
www.uni-bremen.de
Contact:
Professor Betina Hollstein
SOCIUM – Research Center on Inequality and Social Policy University of Bremen
Tel.: +49 421 218-58512
E-mail: betina.hollsteinprotect me ?!uni-bremenprotect me ?!.de
Susanne Kretzer and Dr. Kati Mozygemba
SOCIUM – Research Center on Inequality and Social Policy
University of Bremen
Tel.: +49 421 218-58616
E-mail: skretzerprotect me ?!uni-bremenprotect me ?!.de
