A Security Framework for Data Distribution in Qualitative Analysis Tools: Digital Rights Management in MiMeG

Qualitative data is now commonly collected, stored, collated and analysed in digital formats, introducing new challenges for computer support. The burgeoning scale and complexity of digital data has meant that qualitative analysis tools are becoming increasingly popular options for managing and collaborating over social scientific data. One particularly important development is that distributed research projects are relying more and more on these qualitative analysis tools not just to support analysis itself, but for efficient collaboration around analytic issues. Although such tools are becoming widely adopted, their development is in early evolutionary stages and lacks even elementary security mechanisms. In this paper, we define a framework of security policies, ownership concepts and information management in these systems. Such a process will help to set the de facto standards for future tools and projects.