Data Services.

Sharing Data

Qualiservice’s research data infrastructure is optimized to suit social scientists’ study-specific and research-oriented needs.

Submitting data and sharing it with other researchers requires careful preparation of the research materials. Data preparation is a collaborative task that involves both the primary researchers and experts at Qualiservice. We will assist you in calculating the costs for archiving and support you in preparing your data for this purpose.

Before transferring research data to Qualiservice, you will be asked to enter into a data-transfer agreement with us. In this agreement, you can specify certain conditions such as embargo periods, which allow the re-use of the data only after a set period of time. In consultation with Qualiservice, you will also be able to define the protections for your data and context materials. Qualiservice further supports you in anonymizing and contextualizing the research data and in editing the corresponding metadata. The metadata, along with the study report, make it easy for other researchers to find information about the data and thus increase the international visibility of your research. You can find out more about the Qualiservice Data Model here.

Qualiservice also curates your data. This means that we organize your data to make it available and citable. Your data and the study report will each get a persistent identifier (DOI). A final proofreading of the research materials by the researchers completes the archiving process.

Owing to the potentially sensitive content of qualitative data, Qualiservice does not make research data publicly available. Research data can only be accessed after a review of the usage request and after signing a usage agreement for scientific re-use in research or teaching.