The UK Data Service and its predecessors, including Qualidata, the first dedicated and pioneering national data service for qualitative data, has helped provide start-up advice for many archiving organisations in their efforts to bring in qualitative data. The UK Data Service has organised and participated in a number of international networking activities over the past 25 years, including:

  • 2000: In October 2000, Qualidata organised the first international stream of sessions on Preserving and Re-using Qualitative Data for Social Research at the 2000 International Social Science Methodology Conference. Papers from fifteen presentations are published in a special edition of the online journal, Forum: Qualitative Social Research (FQS), as Text – Archive – Re-Analysis FQS 1(3), December 2000, edited by Louise Corti, Susann Kluge, Katja Mruck and Diane Opitz.
  • 2005: At the 2005, International Social Science Methodology Conference in Amsterdam, ESDS Qualidata held a session dedicated to re-using data. Papers from these presentations and further contributions on the topic can be found in an FQS Special Issue on Secondary Analysis of Qualitative Data: Corti, L., Witzel, A. and Bishop, L. (2005, January).
  • 2010: A joint meeting with ESRC Timescapes, funded by CESSDA and titled Qualitative Longitudinal Research and Qualitative Resources in Europe: Mapping the Field and Exploring Strategies for Development was held in 2010. CESSDA meetings and the IASSIST annual conference continue to be the place to network for qualitative archiving activities.
  • 2010: A working group dedicated to working on metadata standards for qualitative data was set up in 2010 under the auspices of the DDI Committee. Two three-day meetings on Qualitative Data and DDI were held in Gothenburg in December 2011 and in Bergen in December 2012.
  • 2012: The EU DASISH project held a two-day workshop on qualitative data archiving in Europe in November 2012, at which a number of archives gave presentations.
  • 2016-2019: CLARIN funded a series of workshops bringing together a range of perspectives on working with oral history data. The Oral History and Technology team aims to knit together the technology used in processing oral history data, from audio to written word to analysis, informed by a range of perspectives. The project continues to host the transcription chain tool, host workshops and produce publications on producing quality transcription, software-aided transcription and analytical techniques enhanced by technology.
  • 2019: The UK Data Service organised a seminar, Capturing Testimony of the Contemporary Migrant Crisis, funded by the Global Challenges Fund, to examine good practices in collecting and sharing data from vulnerable populations on sensitive topics.
  • 2023: The National Centre for Research Methods established the International Network on Qualitative Archives and Data Reuse to bring together qualitative researchers with expertise in archiving and reuse to examine how qualitative researchers might respond to and adapt to changes in data protection, open research mandates and data archiving.