What kinds of qualitative data projects are available on the Qualitative Data Repository?

Updated

The Qualitative Data Repository (QDR) at qdr.syr.edu hosts curated qualitative data projects tied to published research, and its featured projects show the range: de-identified interview transcripts, large document collections, and study materials such as consent-related toolkits. You can browse these on the site's Featured Data Projects section, and each project page gives a project overview plus links to related publications and data.

What the featured projects look like

The three projects highlighted on the QDR homepage illustrate the main data types you'll encounter.

Project Data type Topic and scope
Assessing the Usability of a Novel Toolkit for Creating Visual Key Information Pages for Informed Consent for Research Study materials and usability testing data Think-aloud usability testing of a customizable one-page key information template for research informed consent, built on health literacy best practices
COVID Diaries, State Response to COVID Vaccination Program, December 2020 to September 2021 Document collection 5,223 unique documents published on official governors' or health department websites across all U.S. states, covering December 2020 through September 2021; a collaboration between the Yale School of Medicine and Yale's Tobin Center for Economic Policy
What Extraordinary Times Tell Us about Ordinary Ones Interview transcripts A multiple case study of older, precariously employed food retail and service workers in Indiana and Washington during the COVID-19 pandemic, deposited as de-identified and generalized semi-structured interview transcripts

Interview transcripts

The food worker study is the clearest example of individual-level qualitative data: semi-structured interviews that have been de-identified and generalized before deposit. If you're looking for first-person accounts of employment quality and social context, this is the pattern to search for.

Document collections

The COVID Diaries project shows that QDR also holds large-scale document corpora. Here the unit of analysis is the published document — state governor and health department communications — rather than a person, which makes this kind of deposit useful for policy communication research.

Study materials and instrument testing

The informed consent toolkit project deposits data from usability testing of a research instrument, and its overview links to a related qualitative article (doi: 10.1017/cts.2024.662), the associated qualitative data (doi: 10.5064/F6DDBH8U), and a pilot testing article (doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2024-092185). This illustrates a common QDR pattern: the data deposit sits alongside the publications it supports.

How to find a project that fits your need

  1. Start at the Featured Data Projects section on the homepage to see representative examples.
  2. Open a project page and read the Project Overview to confirm the data type, population, geography, and time frame.
  3. Follow the linked publications and DOIs to check whether the data matches your research question before you go further.
  4. If you're new to working with qualitative data, the site's "Just Getting Started?" path points to QDR's services, and the Resources section covers guidance such as managing data.

A practical check: if you need transcripts, look for deposits described as de-identified interviews; if you need policy documents or communications, look for deposits described as document collections with a stated source and date range.

What each project page tells you

Every featured project follows the same structure — a project overview describing the study and its methods, followed by links to related articles and the data itself. That consistency is what makes the repository usable for planning: you can judge scope and fit from the overview before committing to a download or access request. Note that the homepage excerpt does not state access conditions or fees for individual deposits, so confirm those on the specific project page.