Helpdesk.
Data Protection
From matters of informed consent to policies of data anonymization, data privacy regulations play an important role in the process of archiving and sharing qualitative research data.
The work of Qualiservice’s team is supported by expert advisory council members such as Heidi Schuster, Data Protection Officer of the Max Planck Society.
Template forms
Qualiservice offers you GDPR-compliant, legally validated templates for informed consent. You can adapt the individual sections to the requirements of your specific project. In the guideline on informed consent (in German), we explain how to use the templates and provide some background information on the topic. For alternatives to written consent, please contact us.
Template: Informed consent for primary research (in German)
Template: Informed consent for primary research
Template: Informed consent for archiving and secondary use (in German)
Template: Informed consent for archiving and secondary use
Further information on informed consent:
Qualiservice provides templates for informed consent to the processing of personal data in German and English on its website. In addition, we now offer a compilation of helpful information on the subject.
Working Paper for informed consent (explanations of using the QS-Templates) - in German
Anonymization and pseudonymization of qualitative data
Detailed information on the anonymization and pseudonymization of qualitative text data can be found in the handout on this topic. The focus is on the balance between the protection of personal rights and the preservation of the reuse value of abstracted data sets for secondary use. It is based on the concept of flexible anonymization, which also forms the basis of the QualiAnon anonymization tool developed and provided by Qualiservice (access to QualiAnon can be found here).
- Mozygemba, Kati & Betina Hollstein (2023): Anonymisierung und Pseudonymisierung qualitativer textbasierter Forschungsdaten - eine Handreichung. Qualiservice Working
Papers 5-2023, Bremen, https://doi.org/10.26092/elib/2525 -
Nicolai, Tom & Mozygemba, Kati (2023): QualiAnon User Manual, v1.3 Qualiservice Technical Report 2-2023, Bremen, doi: https://doi.org/10.26092/elib/2576
Software available at: https://github.com/pangaea-data-publisher/qualianon
Further information on data protection:
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In cooperation with the Institute for IT, Media and Intellectual Property Law, Qualiservice organized the workshop „Rechtsfragen zur Nutzung von Daten in Forschung, Archivierung und Sekundärnutzung“ in January 2020. The lecture is now online available for free.
Another video by the Institute for IT, Media and Intellectual Property Law on the subject of "Data Protection in Research" can be found here:
- Ebel, T., & Watteler, O. (2019): Datenschutz im Forschungsdatenmanagement. In: Jensen, U.; Netscher, S.; Weller, K. (eds.): Forschungsdatenmanagement sozialwissenschaftlicher Umfragedaten. Berlin, Opladen, Toronto: Barbara Budrich. pp. 57-80. (in German)
- Rat für Sozial- und Wirtschaftsdaten (eds.) (2020): Handreichung Datenschutz. RatSWD Output 8 (6). Berlin: RatSWD. (in German)
- German Data Forum (eds.) (2020): Data Protection Guide. RatSWD Output 8 (6). Berlin: RatSWD. (in English)