Navigating considerations for qualitative data sharing from an applied, mixed methods, public health research perspective: beyond confidentiality to issues of epistemology and ontology

Please join the Data Epistemologies and Interpretive Ethics Community of Practice as we host a webinar on epistemological and ontological issues related to qualitative data sharing in mixed-methods research. 

The global movement towards public data sharing has raised ethical and philosophical questions about the extent to which qualitative data collected from human subjects in public health research studies can and should be shared. Among public health researchers, especially those concerned with sensitive or criminalized health behaviors such as sexual behavior or drug use, initial reactions to requests to make data publicly available tend to center around confidentiality or privacy concerns. However, there are also philosophical concerns that must be addressed. Specifically, knowing ahead of time that data will be shared can shape decisions about study design and execution, such as who is enrolled, what they are asked, and what data are collected and/or preserved. Working with interdisciplinary team members who draw on different philosophical worldviews, and using mixed methods designs that lay bare the consistencies and inconsistencies in those worldviews, can raise the stakes even further. In this panel we will draw on our expertise as researchers and Institutional Review Board members to discuss the dilemmas we have encountered when considering whether and how to share data from public health research studies on sexual and drug-using behaviors, moving past concerns about confidentiality to questions about how the goal of sharing data can influence the very nature of the data we collect and how we collect them.

Our panelists are:

Karla D. Wagner, Ph.D.

Mia Kirk, MPH, Ph.D. candidate

Cecilia Brooke Cholka, Ph.D, CIP

Sarah Myer, MPH, MCHES

Please join us and register here