About Research Data Share

This site is managed by the Research Data Share Collective. The content you find on this site, which includes digital items such as images, texts, and sound recordings, have been made publicly available by the contributor for research, teaching, and private study. This material is not intended to be used for profit or without proper attribution.

Using digital items

RDS contains a wide variety of items from many different individuals and institutions. Some items are already in the public domain and may be freely used by anyone; in the case of other items, the materials have been uploaded under a fair use clause where the contributing institution is still the copyright holder and would need to grant permission for certain other uses; for still others, the copyright owner is a third party or is unknown and users will need to conduct their own analysis (and may need to contact a copyright holder directly).

The first step for determining the copyright status of a given item is to consult the information about the item such as creator, and date. This information can be found directly next to the item. The license, if stipulated, is also indicated underneath the item contributed.

You may still be able to use items that are protected by copyright for educational, research, or other purposes. You--not RDS or the item’s contributors--are responsible for determining whether your use of an item is permitted by law. You can learn more about what uses of copyrighted materials are allowed by law at the American Library Association’s Copyright Advisory Network(link is external), which has tools to help explain copyright guidelines for instructors(link is external) and fair use(link is external).

Linking to digital items

Anyone is welcome to view and link to public pages of this site without further permission. This includes, for example, including a link to a particular page within this site in a syllabus or from your own website.

Citing digital items

When citing or using material from the site, please provide information about the item so that others can learn more about and return to the original. Include the name of the contributor(s), a link to the item, and title and date information when available. The Library of Congress provides additional guidance on citing primary sources.(link is external)

What you can do with RDS meta-data

Metadata in RDS which is the information in the side column or cover page describing items on the site, can be freely shared and reused.

Motivation for and history of RDS

“After all this research, we still remain the same," a Nairobi resident explained. Despite decades of research aiming to “solve Africa’s problems” and billions of dollars in funding, many of those who are studied see little change in their everyday lives. Particular communities such as some residents in Kibera, an infamous informal settlement in Nairobi, Kenya, appear to increasingly be “over-researched” (Sukarieh and Tannock 2012; Biruk 2012) demonstrating survey fatigue, falsified responses, and even feelings of exploitation (Petryna 2009).

Opening up quantitative datasets is increasingly foregrounded in discussions about responsible and equitable research practices and is now reaching a new pitch in mainstream academic and global development discourse, especially due to a growing push by governments and funders to open up research artifacts for greater public consumption (see the Open Data, Open Science, Open Access movements for context). Meanwhile, the social sciences and empirical humanities are struggling to figure out whether and how to join in. In spite of long histories of activist and public scholarship, many in the empirical humanities do not see themselves as aligned with those of the open science movement. There are numerous reasons for why qualitative researchers rarely share and reuse data. But growing pressure to share have led many qualitative researchers to revisit questions regarding their responsibilites towards qualitative data.

This instance of the PECE platform(link is external) was set up in December 2018 to directly address the critiques of extraction in which the project was interested. The Research Data Share platform is an attempt to explore, through practice, the challenges and opportunities of sharing qualitative data, which has unique challenges to be explored in depth. As a research object in and of itself, this platform is being used to facilitate discussion over the worries and possibilities imagined and experienced by those interested in sharing qualitative research data.

The platform was originally set up as part of Angela Okune(link is external)'s research project to facilitate the sharing of the project’s own data as well as any relevant data produced by collaborating research organizations where Okune conducted fieldwork. Okune's approach drew inspiration from the concept of “para-ethnography” (Marcus 2000) and expanded the para-ethnographic into the digital realm.

The platform now serves as open infrastructure for individuals and groups in Kenya interested in archiving and sharing ethnographic data including the RDS CollectivePlease contact us(link sends e-mail) if you are interested in partnership or further leveraging the platform.

Know something we don't?

The sometimes obscure nature of historical, archival, and/or primary source collections can make it difficult to know all the details about the items that appear on this site. RDS has attempted to provide as much information as is feasible, respect ethical guidelines, and adhere to legal specifications as new information about these items is made available. We welcome additional information about the digital primary sources in RDS. If you have information about an item on this site that is not represented in the item’s metadata or would like to help correct an error, please contact us(link sends e-mail).

Acknowledgements

Big thank yous to:

Leah Horgan(link is external) for designing and creating the RDS logo

Brian Callahan(link is external) for supporting the installation and technical maintainance of RDS

Renato Vasconcellos Gomes(link is external) for supporting technical maintainance and troubleshooting of RDS

Lindsay Poirier(link is external) for supporting ongoing feature requests

Kim Fortun(link is external) for assistance with design, conceptualization, and ongoing review of RDS

Mike Fortun(link is external) for assistance with design, conceptualization, and ongoing review of RDS

Librarians and archivists at the University of California, Irvine and Berkeley.

The PECE Design Team(link is external)

Revisions

This statement was last revised on Sept 25, 2024 and may be revised at any time.