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Open government data and access to public sector information is commonplace, yet little attention has focussed on the essential roles and responsibilities in practice of the information and records management professionals, who enable public authorities to deliver open data to citizens. This paper aims to consider the perspectives of open government and information practitioners in England on the procedural and policy implications of open data across local public authorities.

Using four case studies from different parts of the public sector in England (local government, higher education, National Health Service and hospital trust), the research involved master’s level students in the data collection and analysis, alongside academics, thus enhancing the learning experience of students.

There was little consistency in the location of responsibility for open government data policy, the range of job roles involved or the organisational structures, policy and guidance in place to deliver this function. While this may reflect the organisational differences and professional concerns, it makes it difficult to share best practice. Central government policy encourages public bodies to make their data available for re-use. However, local practice is very variable and perhaps understandably responds more to local organisational strategic and resource priorities. The research found a lack of common metadata standards for open data, different choices about which data to open, problems of data redundancy, inconsistency and data integrity and a wide variety of views on the corporate and public benefits of open data.

The research is limited to England and to non-national public bodies and only draws data from a small number of case studies.

The research contributes to the debate about emerging issues around the complexities of open government data and its public benefits, contributing to the discussions around technology-enabled approaches to citizen engagement and governance. It offers new insights into the interaction between open data and public policy objectives, drawing on the experience of local public sectors in England.

Government administrative data have enormous potential for public and individual benefit through improved educational and health services to citizens, medical research, environmental and climate interventions and better use of scarce energy resources. The purpose of this study (part of the Administrative Data Research Centre in England, ADRC-E) was to examine perspectives about the sharing, linking and re-use (secondary use) of government administrative data. This study seeks to establish an analytical understanding of risk with regard to administrative data.

This qualitative study focused on the secondary use of government administrative data by academic researchers. Data collection was through 44 semi-structured interviews plus one focus group, and was supported by documentary analysis and a literature review. The study draws on the views of expert data researchers, data providers, regulatory bodies, research funders, lobby groups, information practitioners and data subjects.

This study discusses the identification and management of risk in the use of government administrative data and presents a risk framework.

This study will have resonance with records managers, risk managers, data specialists, information policy and compliance managers, citizens groups that engage with data, as well as all those responsible for the creation and management of government administrative data.

First, this study identifies and categorizes the risks arising from the research use of government administrative data, based on policy, practice and experience of those involved. Second, it identifies mitigating risk management activities, linked to five key stakeholder communities, and it discusses the locus of responsibility for risk management actions. The conclusion presents the elements of a new risk framework to inform future actions by the government data community and enable researchers to exploit the power of administrative data for public good.

This article discusses the use of Encoded Archival Description (EAD) as a metadata framework within applications that are primarily concerned with the provision of access to digital forms of archive documents. These digital forms are transcripts encoded using the Text‐Encoding Initiative (TEI) and images. The article argues that EAD, as it currently stands, is focused on the provision of metadata for original archive documents rather than for digital forms of originals, and it explores where metadata about originals and their digital forms converge and diverge. It suggests how the EAD framework can be expanded to allow for the capture of adequate metadata about both types of document and asserts that such expansion enables EAD to act as a more complete and comprehensive metadata framework in online environments. This approach to digitisation relies on the flexibility of XML technology. The article is based on the research undertaken within the LEADERS project (http://www.ucl.ac.uk/leaders‐project/).

This paper aims to offer a profile of Stuart Baker‐Brown.

Stuart provides a short biography and is then interviewed by Jerome. Areas covered in the interview include his trek to Everest Base Camp, involvement with the Time to Change anti‐stigma campaign and his work on the Recovery Archive.

Stuart stresses the importance of giving hope to people with mental health problems. Individuals also need to believe that they can recover. He feels that the new Recovery Archive will help provide a more encouraging alternative perspective on living a life beyond the effects of mental illness.

Stuart is one of comparatively few people trying to present psychosis in a more positive perspective. He has made a significant contribution to helping change public perceptions towards mental illness through his media work.

The purpose of this paper is to present an argument for taking the long view of the retention and preservation of inactive medical records.

Using the theoretical framework of Actor-Network Theory, the author examines medical records, and especially mental health records, as actants that participate in the classification and treatment of patients, and in the development of psychiatry and mental hospitals as social institutions.

The varied and profound roles of medical records demonstrate the ability for records to have multiple “lives” that can touch many individuals beyond a single human lifetime.

As the current and future custodians of historical medical record collections, information professionals are in a position to be greater advocates for the increased preservation of and mindful access to these materials.

Medical records have potential to be cultural heritage documents, especially for emergent communities.

This paper articulates the ways in which medical records are an embedded part of many societies, and affect the ways in which illness is defined and treated. It thus suggests that while laws regarding the retention and destruction of and access to medical records continue to be deliberated upon around the world, such records can have enduring value as information artifacts.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an autoethnographic account of the stories of a mental health professional and a mental health survivor.

Using the autoethnographic approach, the authors provide summaries of their respective psychiatric careers in three parts.

The authors studied at the same University, Reading. Voyce failed his Politics finals and embarked on a trajectory as a mental patient. Carson graduated in Psychology and trained as a clinical psychologist. The recovery movement brought them together, and they have now established an educational and personal bond.

These are of course only two accounts, yet both authors have played a role in developing the recovery model in Britain. The accounts and story show the benefits of adopting a partnership approach between professional and service user.

Both accounts are recovery journeys in their own way. Both highlight the value of education for recovery.

There is no doubt that clinical psychologists are both highly valued and well paid for their expertise. However, the expertise gained through Andrew’s life experience is equally invaluable for today’s mental health professionals to learn from, but perhaps not as well remunerated.

Both accounts stretch back over 45 years and have covered the move from institutional to community care. This paper presents two contrasting perspectives on these changes and the lives of the two people involved.

Project alliancing – a project delivery model used in delivering complex projects – demands new organizational capabilities for successful project implementation. The purpose of this paper is to define the concept of project alliance (PA) capability and to identify the elements that constitute an organization’s PA capability.

This study provides empirical evidence of PA capability based on an investigation of participants’ experiences of Finnish construction and infrastructure alliance projects. The adopted research approach is qualitative and inductive.

The paper conceptualizes PA capability and defines the elements that constitute an organization’s PA capability, including important activities in the pre-formation, development and post-formation phases of PAs and the contractual, behavioral, relational, and operational skills that organizations need for successful alliance project initiation and implementation.

The identified alliance project activities are targets for routinization and best practices that organizations can deploy from one project to another. The identified skills indicate areas in which organizations should build and develop expertise.

There is limited empirical research on the elements defining an organization’s capability to bid, manage and operate in alliance projects. This study presents some preliminary thoughts to augment knowledge of the successful initiation and management of alliance projects and to suggest why some organizations may be more successful than others in alliance projects.

Today, social procurement and requirements to create employment for disadvantaged groups in particular, are increasingly used in the construction sector. The purpose of this paper is to explore the use of employment requirements and its organizational implications in Sweden, and to suggest a possible theoretical approach for studying this phenomenon in the future.

The paper is based on written sources describing influential Swedish cases where employment requirements have been used, as well as on interviews with central actors in industry and society.

Due to the increased use of employment requirements, the construction industry may currently be experiencing the initial stages of a process of institutional change. This implies that a traditional logic, where value is perceived as a function of the cost and quality of the physical product, is increasingly co-existing and competing with a logic where social value plays an important role.

An institutional perspective could enable a rich explication of processes, practices and roles, which might help individual practitioners and organizations to more purposefully work towards a more informed and effective use of employment requirements.

This study takes a first step towards increased theorization of the emergent practice of including employment requirements in construction procurement and its organizational implications. Thereby, research on this phenomenon may be more closely related to and informed by relevant developments in the wider academic community.

Most military aviation organisations today have not evolved their safety management approach towards harmonising with civil aviation. Safety culture is the base for any civil aviation organisation, enabling employees to communicate effectively and be fully aware and extrovert on safety. Just culture and reporting culture both are related to safety culture. Both are parts of the awareness process, enhancing safety promotion. These distinct elements and the safety management systems (SMS) can serve well the military aviation. This paper aims to present and discuss the SMS philosophy, structure and elements as a solution for military aviation organisations.

The feature of civil aviation SMSs are presented and discussed, with reference to the applicable frameworks and regulations governing the SMS operation. A discussion on the challenges faced within the military aviation organisations, with a brief examination of a European Union military aviation organisation, is presented.

The European Military Airworthiness Requirements, which are based on the European Aviation Safety Agency set of rules, can act the basis for establishing military aviation SMSs. A civil-based approach, blended, as necessary, with military culture is workable, as this is the case for many defence forces that have adopted such aviation safety systems.

This viewpoint paper discusses the opportunities and challenges associated with the adoption of SMS by military aviation organisations. This is the first time that this issue is openly discussed and presented to the wider aviation community, outside military aviation.

The aim of this paper is to understand how the role of an mHealth artifact plays out in home care settings. An mHealth artifact, in terms of a mobile app, was tested to see how the quality of home care work practice was enhanced and changed. The research question is: In what ways does an mHealth artifact re-shape a home care practice and how does this affect the interaction between caregivers and the elderly and learning opportunities for the caregivers?

An action research approach was taken and the study was conducted in a home care organization in a Swedish municipality. The data were collected through semi-structured interviews and observations that were conducted during home visits. Concepts of learning and boundary objects were used to analyze and distinguish interactions and conversations with the mHealth artifact.

The study shows how an mHealth artifact is re-shaping a home care practice and how this affects interactions and identifies learning opportunities. Views on the mHealth artifact as a designated boundary object as well as a boundary object-in-use must co-exist.

The study provides qualitative descriptions from using an mHealth artifact for home care, which is an emerging area of concern for both research and practice. It focuses on the interactional and organizational values generated from the actual use of the designed mobile application.