Sharing Field Notes

Description

Field notes are the ‘raw data’ and/or essential contextualisation of data of several types of qualitative research in social sciences and humanities disciplines like archaeology, sociology, and cultural anthropology. They can vary from handwritten, completely unstructured text in a notebook, to manually or digitally filled out forms. What they have in common is that they form the context to interpret the original data (and in some cases they are the original data themselves). As such they are essential for research integrity and the verification of results. However, they are not often shared for various reasons.

In this workshop wedive into these reasons and the pros and cons of sharing fieldwork data, and how to share them. Through case studies from various disciplines within the social sciences and humanities and input from trainers and participants we aim to establish best practices. We cover the following topics: Why share (or not share) field notes, which notes could be shared (and which not), how to share them (e.g., in what format, on which platform), what metadata are needed for them to be understood.

This workshop was scheduled for 26 May 2025, between 13:15 and 17:00, at the Huizinga Building, Room 0.09, Doelensteeg 16, 2311 VL Leiden.

Programme outline
12.15-13.15 Walk-in, lunch available
13.15-13.45 Welcome and introduction to the topic
13.45-14.45 Case studies from different disciplines – brief presentations with time for questions.
14.45-15.15 Break with coffee/tea
15.15-16.15 Interactive session
16.15-17.00 Conclusions

Organisers
Pascal Flohr, Leiden University
Deborah Thorpe, DANS
Michelle van den Berk, DANS
Mayukha Bathini, Promovendi Netwerk Nederland
Bora Lushaj, International Institute of Social Studies, Erasmus University

Period	26 May 2025
Event type	Workshop
Location	Leiden, NetherlandsShow on map
Degree of Recognition	National