Seeking seamless depositing solutions for multi country (LMIC) qualitative data

The 16th International Conference on Open Repositories took place between 7th and 10th June, 2021. The event was held virtually and included a line-up of speakers from around the world, with RESPIRE being one of them. 

What is an open repository?

A repository is, simply, a place where things may be stored. 

An open repository, more specifically, is a digital repository to store, manage, aggregate, and provide access to a wide range of materials. It requires no login or subscription, and the content is freely available to download and reuse. 

The presentation

Moni Choudhury, the Data Science and Methodology Manager for RESPIRE, presented on 10th June at the conference. Moni covered one of the deliverables of RESPIRE: to deposit and share research data in an open-source repository.  

Moni spoke about how RESPIRE data could be deposited into one open repository, covering a detailed and organic methodology. This included the retrospective review of all RESPIRE projects’ proposals and/or protocols; remote and face-to-face discussions with the RESPIRE research project teams about data management; and ready-made data depositing solutions, including repositories at the University of Edinburgh.

Moni proceeded to discuss the piloting of research data submitted into Edinburgh DataShare, an open repository, and the challenges around qualitative data deposits. Calling upon work conducted by a RESPIRE PhD project, she highlighted how raw qualitative data could not be deposited openly due to the sensitive nature of the data and current lack of guidance on de-identification of raw data, such as images. Similarly, discussions at the RESPIRE annual scientific meeting highlighted that qualitative data presented this challenge across all RESPIRE partners.

In conclusion, Moni proposes a solution where a data repository could allow for controlled and managed access, which has been explored by RESPIRE. This is essential for when the data is sensitive, or has a small population sample.

Watch the presentation

To watch the presentation, Open Repositories have posted the entire session to their YouTube channel. The below link commences at the start of Moni's RESPIRE presentation (1:00:56). The presentation ends at 1:11:00. 

Watch the presentation 

Alternatively, the slides for the presentation can be viewed on Zenodo.

View presentation slides

Further information

The presentation was proposed with the following abstract: 

Choudhury, Moni; Salim, Hani; Mahmood, Hana; Agarwal, Dhiraj; Bhattacharjee, Tathagata; Norrie, John; Juvekar, Sanjay.

The NIHR-RESPIRE collaboration spans across four South Asian, low-middle income countries (LMICs) of Bangladesh, India, Malaysia and Pakistan, and hosted by the University of Edinburgh.  

One of the deliverables of RESPIRE is to deposit and share research data in an open-source repository. We explored if all RESPIRE data could be deposited into one open repository. Our methodology was organic but included: retrospective review of all RESPIRE projects’ proposals and/or protocols; remote and face-to-face discussions with the RESPIRE research project teams about data management, and ready-made data depositing solutions including repositories at the University of Edinburgh.

We piloted both quantitative and qualitative data submissions into a preferred open repository: Edinburgh DataShare. Quantitative data is relatively straightforward in being de-identified and can be made available in open repositories, but qualitative data is more challenging. The data from a RESPIRE PhD project highlighted that raw qualitative data could not be deposited openly due to the sensitive nature of the data and current lack of guidance on de-identification of raw data such as images. Other raw data include original audio recordings, verbatim and translated transcripts. Similarly, discussions at the RESPIRE annual scientific meeting highlighted that qualitative data presented this challenge across all RESPIRE partners.

Supporting platform

Learn more about Platform III - Open Science, Data & Methodologies