An assessment of whether educated non-researcher audiences understand how to reuse research data

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to assess whether educated non-researcher audiences understand how to reuse research data stored in a data repository.

Design/methodology/approach

A total of 44 participants in two user studies were asked to study a data set accessed from re3data.org. The participants were non-researcher audiences of the disciplines of the selected data sets. They were asked to figure out whether they understood how to reuse a data set after reading all the metadata or contextual information about the data set.

Findings

Most participants reported that they figured out how to reuse the data, although their self-reports can be an overestimated assessment. However, the participants understand how to reuse a data set either numerically or statistically significantly worse than what the data set is, how it was collected or created and its purpose. Data set type tends to play a role in understanding how to reuse data sets and the purpose of data sets. Participants reported that unless a data set is self-explanatory, instructions on data set reuse and the purpose of data set were necessary for understanding how to reuse data set. However, because data reuse requires domain knowledge and data processing skills, some non-researcher audiences who lack domain knowledge and data processing skills may not understand how to reuse the data set in any way.

Research limitations/implications

This study’s findings enrich the theoretical framework of data sharing and reuse by expanding the necessary information to be included in data documentation to support non-researchers’ data reuse. The findings of the study complement previous literature.

Practical implications

This study extended previous literature by suggesting detailed data reuse instructions be included in data documentation if data producers and data curators wish to support educated non-researchers’ data reuse. This study’s findings enable policymakers of research data management (RDM) to formulate guidelines for supporting non-researchers’ data reuse. If data curators need to work with data producers to prepare the instructions on data reuse for non-researcher audiences, they probably need computing and data processing skills. This has implications for Library and Information Science schools to educate data librarians.

Originality/value

The research question is original because non-researcher audiences in the context of RDM have not been studied before. This study extended previous literature by suggesting detailed data reuse instructions be included in data documentation if data curators and data producers and data curators wish to support educated non-researchers’ data reuse. This study’s findings enable policymakers of RDM to formulate guidelines for supporting non-researchers’ data reuse.

Citation

Wu, Y., Bai, R. and Wang, F. (2024), "An assessment of whether educated non-researcher audiences understand how to reuse research data", The Electronic Library, Vol. 42 No. 6, pp. 949-969. https://doi.org/10.1108/EL-10-2023-0241