Syracuse Sun

Syracuse University hosts the nation's sole repository dedicated to archiving, storing, and sharing digital data from qualitative and multi-method research in social sciences. The Qualitative Data Repository (QDR), established in 2014, serves as a platform for social scientists to share qualitative data.

Duncan Brown, vice president for research at Syracuse University, emphasized the importance of QDR: “QDR is a valuable national resource for managing complexities of qualitative data across the social sciences. Qualitative data presents unique challenges for its archival, sharing, citation and management.”

The QDR was founded by Colin Elman, a professor of political science at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. It is currently led by Sebastian Karcher, director of the University's Center for Qualitative and Multi-Method Inquiry. Karcher highlighted QDR's role beyond being an archive: “This isn’t just an archive. We’re an active place of cutting-edge social science research and constantly engage with other qualitative data researchers.”

Karcher works alongside Carole Palmer and Nic Weber from the University of Washington, Dessi Kirilova as senior curation specialist, Derek Robey as postdoctoral fellow, and Christiane Pagé as a data specialist. The repository includes contributions from 35 prominent U.S. universities.

QDR's holdings have expanded to include more qualitative health data since the COVID-19 pandemic. Karcher noted: “That data helps researchers who are trying to figure out how people relate to medical science.”

The repository supports researchers in various ways. Karcher stated: “If you’re teaching and engaging in research, there’s likely something here in your area to work with and benefit from.” He also mentioned that funders increasingly expect grantees to share collected data.

Data sets deposited in QDR include online journal entries during the COVID-19 pandemic, human rights reports from Northern Ireland between 1968 and 1998, campaign videos from Latin American elections strategies, and interviews used by Corey Shdaimah at the University of Maryland School of Social Work.

Shdaimah expressed satisfaction with QDR: “When researchers collect qualitative data... I felt very good about having a place to deposit data that I knew was secure.”

Sophia Lafferty-Hess from Duke University Libraries has referred researchers to QDR for training on data management and sharing. She remarked: “One of the key outcomes for our researchers is easier compliance with funder and journal data sharing policies.”

Paul Bern from Syracuse University Libraries underscored QDR's uniqueness: “The QDR is really quite useful... Its uniqueness makes QDR invaluable.”