Towards a Palestinian research data archive

Swiss partners

• Swiss Centre of Expertise in the Social Sciences FORS - UNIL: Brian Kleiner (main applicant), Alexandra Stam

Partners in the MENA region

• Birzeit University, Palestine: Asem Khalil (main applicant), Raed Eshnaiwer 

• Nablus Municipality, Palestine: Derar Touqan

Presentation of the projet

Early in the project there was work done to assess the existing research data landscape in Palestine, in order to see who is producing new data, and who was using existing data. This was carried out in an informalway, without a structured approach. The decision was made to focus at first on the research carried out at the University of Birzeit. At monthly project meetings, findings were discussed, as well as how this might have an effect on the development of an archival service for research data. Later, after some important data producers at Birzeit were identified, the project team conducted interviews, in most cases with well-established professors who had collected data or used data for research projects. The interviews were recorded, transcribed, and discussed within the project team. One focus of the interviews was on attitudes towards data sharing, and willingness to share data with third parties though a data archive. At the same time, there was a reflection on the existing historical data archive, and on how this might be extended to include research data. lt was determined that the current technical capacities would need to be expanded considerably in order to accommodate quantitative and qualitative research data. This included features that would protect respondent confidentiality. Discussions at meetings also concentrated on the current archival workflow and how this would have to be adapted for research data. Birzeit project members also assessed the needs of the archive in terms of equipment, and made a variety of purchased that allowed them to update their inventory of tools, with the idea that these additions would be needed for archiving research data (see annex for list of purchases).

Many of the regular project meetings focused on how research digital data archives function, and how these differ from historical archives in terms of workflow and standards These discussions led to a concrete plan for a formal 3-day training in research data management, which was planned to be held in Lausanne. Unfortunately, these plans fell through several times, due to the Covid epidemic, which froze all travel. ln the end, the planned training was not conducted.