CAQDAS Stakeholders and Their Relations to Open Science Practices

Abstract

This study identifies potential stakeholders in CAQDAS and explores their relations to known Open Science practices. It builds on the premise that Open Science concepts are strongly influenced by quantitative disciplines and cannot be directly and unreflectively applied to qualitative research. An exploratory qualitative study using Applied Thematic Analysis was conducted on ten interviews with researchers, developers, and experts in qualitative research and/or Open Science. Findings revealed a complex stakeholder landscape in which actors may occupy multiple, context-dependent roles rather than mutually exclusive categories. Open Science was mainly reflected as process-oriented and contextually negotiated transparency, shaped by methodological, ethical, legal, and practical constraints. Collaborative qualitative research was reported to introduce data management concerns involving CAQDAS and external infrastructure. The findings largely align with existing literature and provide design implications for Research Software Engineers as precursors to future requirements engineering activities.