A meta-framework for designing open data studies in psychology: ethical and practical issues of open qualitative data sets

Abstract

To date, open science, and particularly open data, in Psychology, has focused on quantitative research. This paper aims to explore ethical and practical issues encountered by UK-based psychologists utilising open qualitative datasets. Semi-structured telephone interviews with eight qualitative psychologists were explored using a framework analysis. From the findings, we offer a context-consent meta-framework as a resource to help in the design of studies sharing their data and/or studies using open data. We recommend ‘secondary’ studies conduct archaeologies of context and consent to examine if the data available is suitable for their research questions. This research is the first we know of in the study of ‘doing’ (or not doing) open science, which could be repeated to develop a longitudinal picture or complemented with additional approaches, such as observational studies of how context and consent are negotiated in pre-registered studies and open data.