Methods for Matching of Linked Open Social Science Data

In recent years, the concept of Linked Open Data (LOD), has gained popularity and acceptance across various communities and domains. Science politics and organizations claim that the potential of semantic technologies and data exposed in this manner may support and enhance research processes and infrastructures providing research information and services. In this thesis, we investigate whether these expectations can be met in the domain of the social sciences. In particular, we analyse and develop methods for matching social scientific data that is published as Linked Data, which we introduce as Linked Open Social Science Data. Based on expert interviews and a prototype application, we investigate the current consumption of LOD in the social sciences and its requirements. Following these insights, we first focus on the complete publication of Linked Open Social Science Data by extending and developing domain-specific ontologies for representing research communities, research data and thesauri. In the second part, methods for matching Linked Open Social Science Data are developed that address particular patterns and characteristics of the data typically used in social research. The results of this work contribute towards enabling a meaningful application of Linked Data in a scientific domain

Applying Linked Data Technologies in the Social Sciences

In recent years Linked Open Data (LOD) has matured and gained acceptance across various communities and domains. Large potential of Linked Data technologies is seen for an application in scientific disciplines. In this article, we present use cases and applications for an application of Linked Data in the social sciences. They focus on (a) interlinking domain-specific information, and (b) linking social science data to external LOD sources (e.g. authority data) from other domains. However, several technical and research challenges arise, when applying Linked Data technologies to a scientific domain with its specific data, information needs and use cases. We discuss these challenges and show how they can be addressed. (author's abstract

Methods for Matching of Linked Open Social Science Data

In recent years, the concept of Linked Open Data (LOD), has gained popularity and acceptance across various communities and domains. Science politics and organizations claim that the potential of semantic technologies and data exposed in this manner may support and enhance research processes and infrastructures providing research information and services. In this thesis, we investigate whether these expectations can be met in the domain of the social sciences. In particular, we analyse and develop methods for matching social scientific data that is published as Linked Data, which we introduce as Linked Open Social Science Data. Based on expert interviews and a prototype application, we investigate the current consumption of LOD in the social sciences and its requirements. Following these insights, we first focus on the complete publication of Linked Open Social Science Data by extending and developing domain-specific ontologies for representing research communities, research data and thesauri. In the second part, methods for matching Linked Open Social Science Data are developed that address particular patterns and characteristics of the data typically used in social research. The results of this work contribute towards enabling a meaningful application of Linked Data in a scientific domain