In social and cultural anthropology, research typically involves the collection of personalPersonal data includes: 'any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person (data subject); an identifiable natural person is one who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data, an online identifier, or to one or more factors specific to the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural, or social identity of that natural person(…)” (EU GDPR Article 4 No. 1, 2016; BDSG §46 para. 1, 2018; BlnDSG §31, 2020). Read More and sensitiveWithin the category of personal data, there is a subset known as special categories of personal data. Their definition originates from Article 9(1) of the EU GDPR (2016), which states that these include information about the data subject’s: Read More data, which must be protected in accordance with the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Anonymization or pseudonymization removes personal identifiers from data, thereby making its further processing for publication, archivingArchiving refers to the storage and accessibility of research data and materials. The aim of archiving is to enable long-term access to research data. On one hand, archived research data can be reused by third parties as secondary data for their own research questions. On the other hand, archiving ensures that research processes remain verifiable and transparent. There is also long-term archiving (LTA), which aims to ensure the usability of data over an indefinite period of time. LTA focuses on preserving the authenticity, integrity, accessibility, and comprehensibility of data. Read More, and reuseData reuse, often referred to as secondary use, involves re-examining previously collected and published research datasets with the aim of gaining new insights, potentially from a different or fresh perspective. Preparing research data for reuse requires significantly more effort in terms of anonymization, preparation, and documentation than simple archiving for storage purposes. Read More lawful – provided that the affected individuals have not explicitly consented to the non-anonymized processing and sharing of their personal data.

For social and cultural anthropologists, the legal requirements of the GDPR (see also the article on Data Protection) often present a dilemma when weighed against the need to maintain precision, authenticity, and academic freedom. Altering personal identifiers can result in the loss of critical information that is essential for the utility of the data within the project and beyond. Depending on the research question, factors such as gender, age, social position, occupation, religious or political affiliation, etc., may not be substitutable without distorting key social relationships. This tension – between providing a dense and transparent account of research processes and findings, while also respecting the social and personal positioning of the ethnographer in the field, and ensuring the necessary protection of participants and their personal rights – requires context-specific and situation-specific solutions.

The anonymization concept employed by the Qualiservice Research Data CenterThe Research Data Centre (RDC) Qualiservice provides qualitative social science data for scientific reuse. Accredited in 2019 by the German Council for Social and Economic Data (RatSWD), it adheres to their quality assurance criteria. In addition to data reuse, researchers have the option to share and organize their own research data, with the Qualiservice team offering advisory support. Qualiservice is committed to the DFG guidelines for ensuring good scientific practice and also adheres to the FAIR Guiding Principles for Scientific Data Management and Stewardship as well as the OECD Principles and Guidelines for Access to Research Data from Public FundingFor further informationen see also: https://www.qualiservice.org/en/. Read More, for example, replaces sensitive information with sociologically relevant descriptors to protect individuals while maximizing the scientific-analytical use and reuse value of the data. For instance, specific place names are not replaced with „City A“ or „City B“ but with „Residency A“ or „Large City in Southern Germany.“ Corresponding strategies of abstraction should be individually adapted to the field- and material-specific requirements and conditions.