Re-using archived qualitative data – where, how, why?

“Qualitative data” are the central issue of this article. Qualitative data are a particular category of data within the social sciences, where data have been predominantly of a quantitative nature. Qualitative data could enrich social science research in many ways. The re-use of this particular type of data is however a new challenge for social science data archives. A new methodology has to be developed when dealing with these data, based on a combination of social science methodology and traditional archival descriptions. An additional question discussed in the article is what the best place should be for archiving and disseminating qualitative data: in research (social science) data archives or in the more traditional libraries and archives?