Open with Care! A Framework for Responsible Qualitative Openness

Calls for qualitative researchers to adopt open science practices are growing, yet most proposals import quantitative logics, such as data sharing, that clash with the epistemic and ethical foundations of qualitative inquiry. I argue that openness in qualitative research is not inherently good, and that it is responsible and desirable only when specific conditions are in place. I propose a framework grounded in three conditions: (1) protection against commodification, which guards against appropriation by commercial or AI systems; (2) preservation of context and interpretive labour, which keeps researcher contributions visible in reuse; and (3) dynamic consent, which recognises participants’ ongoing agency over their narratives. When these conditions are absent, we risk the erosion of participants’ trust, losing important interpretative meaning, and unwittingly commodifying narratives. I conclude by mapping responsibilities across stakeholders, showing how openness in qualitative research can be enacted as a shared duty of care across multiple stakeholders.