Dr Mingfang Wu1, Dr. Ying-Hsang Liu, Dr. Megan Power, Dr. Adrian Burton2
1Australian Research Data Commons, Melbourne, Australia, 2Australian Research Data Commons, Canberra, Australia, 3Wissen Insight, Canberra, Australia, 4Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
Purpose:
There has been an increasing number of data repositories appearing and dataset beholdings per repository globally since the campaign of open data started. To make these open data more discoverable by researchers, we need to engage with research communities for understanding their data discovery context: how researchers approach and search for data, what criteria researchers apply for assessing the relevance and reusability of a dataset, and what data attributes matter to them when they search for data. Finding answers to these questions will enable us to provide a better data discovery service, and maximise the value of data assets that have taken a lot of resources to collect and curate.
This presentation will introduce an Australian Research Data Commons project that elicits data discovery context from researchers. We will present findings from the project and recommendations for improving data discovery services.
Method
The project has taken a mixed-method approach by using a pre-interview survey and in-depth interview to understand the broader data discovery context within the researcher’s information-seeking and research processes.
Result
The interviews have gathered rich information on data discovery challenges, for example, discovering and accessing data and dealing with duplicates from multiple repositories, the magnitude and relevance of search results, lacking provenance information to make sense of data, integrating data with formats and variables that are described and measured in different ways, unclear licence, etc.. Above all, data discovery has its social dynamics, we need to improve both the data search system and data discovery ecosystem.
Biography:
Dr. Mingfang Wu is senior research data specialist at the Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC). She has conducted research in the areas of interactive information retrieval, search log analysis, interfaces supporting exploratory search and enterprise search. Her recent research focuses on the data discovery paradigms as part of the Research Data Alliance initiative and for improving data discovery service of an Australian national research data catalogue.