LOGO

The German Data Forum on empirical social, behavioural and economic sciences accredits the research data center QUALISERVICE located at the SOCIUM Research Center of the University of Bremen.

The German Data Forum advises the federal government and is involved in optimizing data infrastructures. Having obtained the accreditation, Qualiservice now aims to strengthen the interests of qualitative research at the level of science policy.

The accreditation by the German Data Forum in June 2019 is a testimony for the hitherto achievements of Qualiservice. For being accredited, research data centers (RDCs) must accord to the criteria of the German Data Forum with regard to data protection and quality as well as continuous dialog with the scientific community. As an accredited RDC, Qualiservice will work with the Standing Committee on Research Data Infrastructure of the German Data Forum. About 30 RDCs, mostly handling quantitative data, are working to establish a new research data infrastructure in specific working groups. Being appointed a member, Qualiservice is given the chance to point out the special requirements that access to sensitive research data entails for secondary use.

Since 2018, the German Research Foundation (GRF) has been funding the perpetuation of Qualiservice as a RDC for sensitive data in qualitative research. As a „living archive“ Qualiservice does not only deposit research data passively, but supports researchers in the documentation process of their research. The aim is to make the research materials generated in the projects available to other scholars for secondary research. The opportunity to reuse and compare data from social research for longitudinals independently of the primary study will be of particular interest in the future.

Qualitative research materials provided by Qualiservice represent for example, interviews or observations. They are available in written form as transcripts or protocols, but also as audio files, photos or video files. These documentations usually refer to personal data, since the interviewees and other research subjects allow the researchers to participate in their lifeworld.
In order to protect research participants’ personal data, Qualiservice has set up secure workflows and a Safe Center. Thereby Qualiservice takes measures to curate sensitive data while complying to data protection regulations. A workplace for visiting scholars enables secondary use directly on site. More anonymised data sets are also provided as scientific use files. Access to the data is contractually regulated and can only be obtained for scientific purposes. The organisation of a quality-oriented RDC requires national and international networking. As a result of the close collaboration with infrastructure facilities and researchers a separate GRF-funded section on ethnographic data was set up. Furthermore, Qualiservice participates in a BMBF-funded project group working on tools to ensure data quality und long term referencing , taking educational data as an example.

Qualiservice is located at the SOCIUM Research Center on Inequality and Social Policy, led by Prof. Dr. Betina Hollstein. In cooperation with PANGAEA - Data Publisher for Earth & Environmental Science and the State and the University Library Bremen (SuUB) Qualiservice is assuring the archiving and dissemination workflows as well as appropriate metadata. Besides, a coordinated archiving and representation of mixed methods studies will be implemented together with GESIS - Leibniz Institut für Sozialwissenschaften. Since 2019 QUALISERVICE works in close cooperation with the DFG-funded Specialised Information Service Social and Cultural Anthropology (FID SKA), located at the University Library of the Humboldt University Berlin.

Contact:
Prof. Dr. Betina Hollstein
SOCIUM Research Center on Inequality and Social Policy
Mary-Somerville-Straße 9
28359 Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-58512
E-Mail: betina.hollstein@uni-bremen.de

The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) supports the development and implementation of tools aiming at facilitating the management of research data.

Together with 10 partners Qualiservice participated in the proposal, which has now been approved by the BMBF. The three year project will be coordinated by the GESIS – Leibniz Institute for Social Sciences and connects various actors of the field of eduational research.

The project aims at developing data specific management tools – Domain-Data-Protocols (DDPs) - for the empirical educational research. DDPs are public and referenceable protocols. They describe aspects of data quality, curation and documentation as well as legal and ethical aspects related to a specific datatype. By offering data management suggestions DDPs can guide researchers applying for funding. Beyond DDPs can support research funders in evaluating the applications. Qualiservice Knowing the challenges linked with the specific needs of qualitative research data, Qualiservice will focus on flexible and research oriented solutions. Researchers and funders will be involved from the very beginning.

Since 2018 the German Research Foundation (DFG) supports the implementation of QUALISERVICE as a national data service center for social science qualitative research data. The data service center (FDZ) is located at SOCIUM and is headed by Prof. Dr. Betina Hollstein. Archiving is organized together with PANGAEA - Data Publisher for Earth & Environmental Science and the State and University Library Bremen (SuUB). Besides, a coordinated archiving and representation of mixed methods studies will be created together with GESIS – Leibniz Institut für Sozialwissenschaften. Since 2019 QUALISERVICE manages in close cooperation with the University Library of the Humboldt University Berlin the DFG-funded Specialised Information Service Social and Cultural Anthropology (FID SKA).

Contact:
Prof. Dr. Betina Hollstein
SOCIUM Research Center on Inequality and Social Policy
Mary-Somerville-Straße 9
28359 Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-58512
E-Mail: betina.hollstein@uni-bremen.de

Special Praise for CRC 1342 and Qualiservice

At the end of March the advisory board used its two day meeting to have a closer look at the research activities of SOCIUM. In discussions with the members of SOCIUM as well as with its board of directors detailed critique as well as high praise was coming forward. The report of the advisory board highlights these findings.

Especially in four core areas of research the advisory board identified the strengths of the research activities of SOCIUM: First, the internationally comparative research on the welfare state and on social policies, especially exemplified by the research of the Collaborative Research Center 1342  “Global Dynamics of Social Policy”. Second, the combination of both qualitative as well as quantitative research methodologies was seen as the traditional strength of Bremen social sciences which gathered national and international importance through the development and expansion of Qualiservice, the service center for qualitative research data. Thirdly, the advisory board praised the continuation of the Bremen tradition of research on life course related inequality, documented by the new chair on life course and social policy financed by a grant of the “Fördernetzwerk Interdisziplinäre Sozialpolitikforschung” of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs. Fourth, the advisory board underlined the importance of the research on middle classes. The board emphasized its belief that the perspective on middle classes will in the upcoming years develop into a major research field of SOCIUM.

Contact:
Prof. Dr. Betina Hollstein
SOCIUM Research Center on Inequality and Social Policy
Mary-Somerville-Straße 9
28359 Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-58512
E-Mail: betina.hollstein@uni-bremen.de

German Research Foundation supports establishment of a division for anthropological research data

The grant is part of the Specialised Information Service Social and Cultural Anthropology (FID SKA), managed by the University Library of the Humboldt Universitaet Berlin and QUALISERVICE at Bremen University. One of the aims of FID SKA is to establish QUALISERVICE as a repository also for qualitative ethnographic research data such as audio and video data, field notes and observation protocols offering an adequate solution for the complex archiving requirements of the sometimes highly sensitive research data throughout Germany. Thus, researchers will obtain a reliable source to archive and request ethnological research data for secondary use in research and teaching.

Since 2018 the German Research Foundation (DFG) supports the implementation of QUALISERVICE as a national data service center for social science qualitative research data. Previously QUALISERVICE focused on qualitative interview data. With the new grant the scope will cover the full range of qualitative social science research data.

QUALISERVICE is located at SOCIUM and is headed by Prof. Dr. Betina Hollstein. Archiving is organized together with PANGAEA - Data Publisher for Earth & Environmental Science and the State and University Library Bremen (SuUB). Besides, a coordinated archiving and representation of mixed methods studies will be created together with GESIS – Leibniz Institut für Sozialwissenschaften.

More information:
Specialised Information Service Social and Cultural Anthropology

Contact:
Prof. Dr. Betina Hollstein
SOCIUM Research Center on Inequality and Social Policy
Mary-Somerville-Straße 9
28359 Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-58512
E-Mail: betina.hollstein@uni-bremen.de

DFG supports infrastructure project with 1 Mio. Euro.

The German Research Foundation (DFG) approves the implementation of QUALISERVICE as data service center for social science qualitative interview data. Thus, social researchers will obtain a reliable source to archive and request interview data for secondary use in research and teaching. QUALISERVICE is located at SOCIUM and is headed by Prof. Dr. Betina Hollstein.

Archiving will be organized together with PANGAEA - Data Publisher for Earth & Environmental Science and the State and University Library Bremen (SuUB). Besides, a coordinated archiving and representation of mixed methods studies will be created together with GESIS – Leibniz Institut für Sozialwissenschaften. In order to guarantee the sustainability of QUALISERVICE IT related components for the internal data will be managed together with PANGAEA.

Roots of this project go back to the first Bremen social science special collaborative centre (SFB) 186 "Status Passages and Risk in Life Course" (1989-2001). Hundreds of interviews collected in the SFB were initially archived in "Archive for Life Course Research" to save them for future use. In 2011 the "Archive for Life Course Research" became QUALISERVICE which has been supported by DFG between 2011 and 2014 to develop central components of the data service centre. Objective of the current interdisciplinary project is to establish QUALISERVICE as a nationwide data service centre.

The project includes the implementation of a safe center for the confidential research data management and the implementation of long-term archiving, further development of the anonymization tool, the implementation of a service center with online portal, data delivery service and help desk, the implementation of the overall organization as well as measures of quality assurance and dissemination and exchange with the scientific community.

More Information about QUALISERVICE

Contact:
Prof. Dr. Betina Hollstein
SOCIUM Research Center on Inequality and Social Policy
Mary-Somerville-Straße 9
28359 Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-58512
E-Mail: betina.hollstein@uni-bremen.de

Susanne Kretzer

A new Project has been approved by the German Research Foundation

Loss of income, educational panic or burn-out problems in the middle classes keep making headlines. The question of whether the middle classes are disturbed in their 'comfort zone' and whether the seemingly self-evident security is no longer valid for their own children is the subject of various and controversial public debates. In fact, little is known about the lifestyle of the middle classes in Germany. Sociologists from various departments of the SOCIUM will now investigate in a research project recently approved by the German Research Foundation (DFG) which events and developments lead to insecurity and how middle class people deal with these irritations.

In the three-year study (funding volume approx. 400,000 euros) with the title "Investing in Status as a Mode of Living: Practices, Conditions, Disturbances" members of different subgroups of the middle class, also in comparison to members of lower classes, are intensively interviewed on several areas of life such as work, partnership, investments to find out to what extent irritations in these areas affect the entire lifestyle.

The study is part of a larger research programme prepared by Uwe Schimank, Betina Hollstein and Karin Gottschall in collaboration with other sociologists at the University of Bremen and beyond. In addition to the qualitative study mentioned above, in which the postdoctoral researchers and doctoral students Nils C. Kumkar, Rixta Wundrak and Stefan Holubek will also be involved, further projects will investigate the lifestyle of the middle classes in a representative, longitudinal and international comparative manner.

Contact:
Prof. Dr. Karin Gottschall
SOCIUM Research Center on Inequality and Social Policy
Mary-Somerville-Straße 5
28359 Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-58595
E-Mail: karin.gottschall@uni-bremen.de

Prof. Dr. Betina Hollstein
SOCIUM Research Center on Inequality and Social Policy
Mary-Somerville-Straße 9
28359 Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-58512
E-Mail: betina.hollstein@uni-bremen.de

Prof. Dr. Uwe Schimank
SOCIUM Research Center on Inequality and Social Policy
Mary-Somerville-Straße 9
28359 Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-58564
E-Mail: uwe.schimank@uni-bremen.de