Why are there fewer qualitative data sets available for secondary data analysis than quantitative datasets? Is that changing? Why?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Qualitative data sources. Far fewer qualitative datasets are available for secondary analysis, but the number is growing. European countries, particularly England, have been in the forefront of efforts to promote archiving of qualitative data. The United Kingdom’s Economic and Social Research Council established the Qualitative Data Archiving Resource Center at the University of Essex in 1994 (Heaton, 2008). Now part of the Economic and Social Data Service, UK Data Service QualiBank (2014) provides access to data from 888 qualitative research projects. After registering at the UK Data Service site, interview transcripts and other materials from many qualitative studies can be browsed or searched directly online, but access to many studies is restricted to users in the United Kingdom or according to other criteria.
In the United States, the ICPSR collection includes an expanding number of studies containing at least some qualitative data or measures coded from qualitative data (over 500 such studies as of 2014). Studies range from transcriptions of original handwritten and published materials relating to infant and child care from the beginning of the 20th century to World War II (LaRossa, 1995) to transcripts of open-ended interviews with high school students involved in violent incidents (Lockwood, 1996). Harvard University’s Institute for Quantitative Social Science has archived more than 400 studies that contain at least some qualitative data (as of July 2014).
The most unique source of qualitative data available for researchers in the United States is the Human Relations Area Files (HRAF) at Yale University. The HRAF has made anthropological reports available for international cross-cultural research since 1949 and currently contains more than 1,000,000 pages of information on more than 400 different cultural, ethnic, religious, and national groups (Ember & Ember, 2011). If you are interested in cross-cultural research, it is well worth checking out the HRAF and exploring access options (reports can be accessed and searched online by those at affiliated institutions).
The University of Southern Maine’s Center for the Study of Lives collects interview transcripts that record the life stories of people of diverse ages and backgrounds. As of July 2014, their collection included transcripts from more than 400 life stories, representing more than 35 different ethnic groups, experiences of historical events ranging from the Great Depression to the Vietnam War, and reports on dealing with problems such as substance abuse. These qualitative data are available directly online without any registration or fee.