Beyond “Data Thrifting”: An Investigation of Factors Influencing Research Data Reuse In the Social Sciences

The development of e-Research infrastructure has enabled data to be shared and accessed more openly. Policy mandates for data sharing have contributed to the increasing availability of research data through data repositories, which create favorable conditions for the reuse of data for purposes not always anticipated by original collectors. Despite the current efforts to promote transparency and reproducibility in science, data reuse cannot be assumed, nor merely considered a “thrifting” activity where scientists shop around in data repositories considering only the ease of access to data. This research was driven by three main questions: 1) What are the factors that influence scientists’ research data reuse? 2) To what degree do these factors influence scientists’ research data reuse? and 3) To what extent do scientists reuse research data? Following a sequential mixed-method approach, this study sought to provide a more nuanced view of the underlying factors that affect social scientists’ intentions to reuse data, as well as the impact of these factors on the actual reuse of data. Findings from a preliminary small-scale exploratory study with 13 social scientists produced 25 factors that were found to influence their perceptions and experiences, including both their unsuccessful and successful attempts to reuse data. These factors were grouped into six theoretical variables: perceived benefits, perceived risks, perceived effort, social influence, facilitating conditions, and perceived reusability. The variables were articulated in a conceptual model drawing upon the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) in order to examining social scientists’ intentions and behaviors towards the reuse of research data. The proposed hierarchical component model and the research hypotheses were validated through a survey, which was distributed to 4,500 social scientists randomly selected from the Pivot/Community of Science (CoS) database. A total of 743 social scientists participated in the survey, of which 564 cases were included in the analysis. The survey data were analyzed using the Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) technique, and supplemented by ad-hoc group comparison analyses. Survey results demonstrated that social scientists’ data reuse intention and reuse behavior were indeed influenced by different factors beyond frugality. More specifically, the more practical and social benefits social scientists perceive from reusing research data, the more likely they intended to reuse data. Similarly, peer and disciplinary influence had a positive effect on social scientists’ intention to reuse data collected/produced by others. On the contrary, the construct perceived risks was found to negatively influence social scientists’ intention to reuse existing research data collected by others. Facilitating conditions and intention to reuse were found to positively correlate to actual data reuse behavior. Perceived effort was found not statistically significant, indicating that reusing data from others did not involve as much effort as collecting/producing primary data. Perceived reusability failed to be measured, due to the lack of convergent validity. Ad-hoc group comparison tests found that intention and data reuse behavior depended on sub-disciplines’ traditions and the methodological approach social scientists followed. The findings of this research provide an in-depth understanding about the reuse of research data in the context of open science, and provide a collection of factors that influence social scientists’ decisions to reuse research data collected by others. Additionally, they update our knowledge of data reuse behavior and contribute to the body of data reuse literature by establishing a conceptual model that can be validated by future research. In terms of practice, it offers recommendations for policy makers, data scientists, and stakeholders from data repositories on defining strategies and initiatives to leverage data reuse and make publicly available data more actionable

O fluxo da informação tecnológica no projeto de produtos em indústrias de alimentos

Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro de Ciências da Educação. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciência da Informaçã

Factors Influencing Research Data Reuse in the Social Sciences: An Exploratory Study

The development of e-Research infrastructure has enabled data to be shared and accessed more openly. Policy mandates for data sharing have contributed to the increasing availability of research data through data repositories, which create favourable conditions for the re-use of data for purposes not always anticipated by original collectors. Despite the current efforts to promote transparency and reproducibility in science, data re-use cannot be assumed, nor merely considered a ‘thrifting’ activity where scientists shop around in data repositories considering only the ease of access to data. The lack of an integrated view of individual, social and technological influential factors to intentional and actual data re-use behaviour was the key motivator for this study. Interviews with 13 social scientists produced 25 factors that were found to influence their perceptions and experiences, including both their unsuccessful and successful attempts to re-use data. These factors were grouped into six theoretical variables: perceived benefits, perceived risks, perceived effort, social influence, facilitating conditions, and perceived re-usability. These research findings provide an in-depth understanding about the re-use of research data in the context of open science, which can be valuable in terms of theory and practice to help leverage data re-use and make publicly available data more actionable.

What factors do scientists perceive as promoting or hindering scientific data reuse?

Increased calls for data sharing have formed part of many governments' agendas to boost innovation and scientific development. Data openness for reuse also resonates with the recognised need for more transparent, reproducible science. But what are scientists' perceptions about data reuse? Renata Gonçalves Curty, Kevin Crowston, Alison Specht, Bruce W. Grant and Elizabeth D. Dalton make use of existing survey data to analyse the attitudes and norms affecting scientists’ data reuse. Perceived efficiency, efficacy, and trustworthiness are key; as is whether scientists believe data reuse is beneficial for scientific development, or perceive certain pressures contrary to the reuse of data. Looking ahead, synthesis centres can be important for supporting data-driven interdisciplinary collaborations, and leveraging new scientific discoveries based on pre-existing data

Attitudes and norms affecting scientists’ data reuse

The value of sharing scientific research data is widely appreciated, but factors that hinder or prompt the reuse of data remain poorly understood. Using the Theory of Reasoned Action, we test the relationship between the beliefs and attitudes of scientists towards data reuse, and their self-reported data reuse behaviour. To do so, we used existing responses to selected questions from a worldwide survey of scientists developed and administered by the DataONE Usability and Assessment Working Group (thus practicing data reuse ourselves). Results show that the perceived efficacy and efficiency of data reuse are strong predictors of reuse behaviour, and that the perceived importance of data reuse corresponds to greater reuse. Expressed lack of trust in existing data and perceived norms against data reuse were not found to be major impediments for reuse contrary to our expectations. We found that reported use of models and remotely-sensed data was associated with greater reuse. The results suggest that data reuse would be encouraged and normalized by demonstration of its value. We offer some theoretical and practical suggestions that could help to legitimize investment and policies in favor of data sharing

Arquitetura da informação e usabilidade do Portal da Capes: a avaliação do usuário.

O ambiente hipertextual e a estrutura de interfaces promovida pela World Wide Web incutiram, de forma quase sintomática, a preocupação com o que convencionalmente se conhece por “arquitetura da informação”. Questões como usabilidade, otimização do fluxo da informação e da navegação se tornam latentes em um veículo que a cada dia incorpora novas tipologias de fontes de informação com recursos tecnológicos cada vez mais avançados. Para fins de análise dos princípios de usabilidade e da arquitetura da informação em fontes eletrônicas, foi selecionado como objeto de estudo o Portal da Capes, pelo fato de congregar documentos completos e resumos em todas as áreas do conhecimento e de constituir-se, por isso, em um expoente para a comunidade universitária. Avaliou-se a adequação de sua estrutura aos principais quesitos da arquitetura da informação e da usabilidade sob a ótica do usuário. Foram eleitos, para tanto, alunos de pós-graduação da Universidade Estadual de Maringá que haviam recentemente passado por treinamento e que recorrem assiduamente ao portal para o desenvolvimento de suas atividades acadêmicas. O formulário de avaliação possibilitou recolher dados relativos às médias atribuídas pelos respondentes nos quesitos de avaliação do Portal de acordo com suas experiências de uso. Os resultados obtidos apontaram para uma avaliação equiparada dos itens, na qual a média de todos os quesitos resultou em 3,5 numa escala de 1 a 5

Uma história social do conhecimento: resenha

BURKE, Peter.  Uma história social do conhecimento: de Gutenberg a Diderot. Rio de Janeiro: Jorge Zahar, 2003