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Article
Publication date: 13 February 2019

Darra Hofman, Victoria Louise Lemieux, Alysha Joo and Danielle Alves Batista

This paper aims to explore a paradoxical situation, asking whether it is possible to reconcile the immutable ledger known as blockchain with the requirements of the General Data…

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Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to explore a paradoxical situation, asking whether it is possible to reconcile the immutable ledger known as blockchain with the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), and more broadly privacy and data protection.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper combines doctrinal legal research examining the GDPR’s application and scope with case studies examining blockchain solutions from an archival theoretic perspective to answer several questions, including: What risks are blockchain solutions said to impose (or mitigate) for organizations dealing with data that is subject to the GDPR? What are the relationships between the GDPR principles and the principles of archival theory? How can these two sets of principles be aligned within a particular blockchain solution? How can archival principles be applied to blockchain solutions so that they support GDPR compliance?

Findings

This work will offer an initial exploration of the strengths and weaknesses of blockchain solutions for GDPR compliant information governance. It will present the disjunctures between GDPR requirements and some current blockchain solution designs and implementations, as well as discussing how solutions may be designed and implemented to support compliance. Immutability of information recorded on a blockchain is a differentiating positive feature of blockchain technology from the perspective of trusted exchanges of value (e.g. cryptocurrencies) but potentially places organizations at risk of non-compliance with GDPR if personally identifiable information cannot be removed. This work will aid understanding of how blockchain solutions should be designed to ensure compliance with GDPR, which could have significant practical implications for organizations looking to leverage the strengths of blockchain technology to meet their needs and strategic goals.

Research limitations/implications

Some aspects of the social layer of blockchain solutions, such as law and business procedures, are also well understood. Much less well understood is the data layer, and how it serves as an interface between the social and the technical in a sociotechnical system like blockchain. In addition to a need for more research about the data/records layer of blockchains and compliance, there is a need for more information governance professionals who can provide input on this layer, both to their organizations and other stakeholders.

Practical implications

Managing personal data will continue to be one of the most challenging, fraught issues for information governance moving forward; given the fairly broad scope of the GDPR, many organizations, including those outside of the EU, will have to manage personal data in compliance with the GDPR. Blockchain technology could play an important role in ensuring organizations have easily auditable, tamper-resistant, tamper-evident records to meet broader organizational needs and to comply with the GDPR.

Social implications

Because the GDPR professes to be technology-neutral, understanding its application to novel technologies such as blockchain provides an important window into the broader context of compliance in evolving information governance spaces.

Originality/value

The specific question of how GDPR will apply to blockchain information governance solutions is almost entirely novel. It has significance to the design and implementation of blockchain solutions for recordkeeping. It also provides insight into how well “technology-neutral” laws and regulations actually work when confronted with novel technologies and applications. This research will build upon significant bodies of work in both law and archival science to further understand information governance and compliance as we are shifting into the new GDPR world.

Details

Records Management Journal, vol. 29 no. 1/2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0956-5698

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 15 November 2018

Soohyung Joo, Darra Hofman and Youngseek Kim

The purpose of this paper is to explore the breadth of the challenges and issues facing institutional repositories in academic libraries, based on a survey of academic librarians…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the breadth of the challenges and issues facing institutional repositories in academic libraries, based on a survey of academic librarians. Particularly, this study covers the challenges and barriers related to data management facing institutional repositories.

Design/methodology/approach

The study uses a survey method to identify the relative significance of major challenges facing institutional repositories across six dimensions, including: data, metadata, technological requirements, user needs, ethical concerns and administrative challenges.

Findings

The results of the survey reveal that academic librarians identify limited resources, including insufficient budget and staff, as the major factor preventing the development and/or deployment of services in institutional repositories. The study also highlights crucial challenges in different dimensions of institutional repositories, including the sheer amount of data, institutional support for metadata creation and the sensitivity of data.

Originality/value

This study is one of a few studies that comprehensively identified the variety of challenges that institutional repositories face in operating academic libraries with a focus on data management in institutional repositories. In this study, 37 types of challenges were identified in six dimensions of institutional repositories. More importantly, the significance of those challenges was assessed from the perspective of academic librarians involved in institutional repository services.

Details

Library Hi Tech, vol. 37 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0737-8831

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 23 October 2023

Babatunde Kazeem Oladejo and Darra Hofman

Social media posts have been an integral part of our society’s communication and serve purposes from the personal to the national, from the mundane to the silly to the momentous…

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Abstract

Purpose

Social media posts have been an integral part of our society’s communication and serve purposes from the personal to the national, from the mundane to the silly to the momentous. This study aims to examine social media posts as records, discussing how social media technology serves, perhaps unexpectedly, to reinforce traditional archival understandings of issues such as provenance, custody, access, disposition and preservation.

Design/methodology/approach

This study follows a four-step methodology. First, this study analyzes literature for a matching definition of the social media record. In the second step, we appraise three social media postings previously curated and cited in news articles by journalists to determine their characteristics – Are these social media posts “records?” Third, this study evaluates the sample records against two dominant theoretical record models, the life cycle and the continuum and attempt to apply the model specifications to the data samples. Finally, this study proposes appropriate records management solutions to address governance issues from the study findings in the conclusion section.

Findings

This study shows that, even by the most traditional of definitions, social media posts are records. The paper also demonstrates that platform mediation transforms simple narrative documents into records whose provenance, custody and control are dictated by platform logics and governance, outside of the control of their creators. Through appraisal of a small sample of “important” social media posts, this study illustrates that, rather than obsolete, traditional records management concepts and approaches are necessary to ensuring the ongoing accessibility, usability and evidentiary character of social media posts in the broader “platformized” context.

Research limitations/implications

This is exploratory, theoretical work. In future works, this study plans to expand and validate aspects of this study.

Originality/value

This paper tests existing theoretical frameworks, namely, the Records Life cycle and the Records Continuum for applicability to the social media record. The paper also offers a view of the potential for traditional archival and records management concepts in service of a just and inclusive recordkeeping, because such concepts allow us to demonstrate the centralized, elite-serving, bureaucratic structures which underpin social media records are obscured by the seemingly decentralized, participatory nature of social media.

Details

Records Management Journal, vol. 33 no. 2/3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0956-5698

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 29 December 2021

Jawad Abbas, Kalpina Kumari and Waleed Mugahed Al-Rahmi

Based on the principles of the human capital theory, this study investigates the role of the quality management system (QMS) in higher education institutions (HEIs) in developing…

Abstract

Purpose

Based on the principles of the human capital theory, this study investigates the role of the quality management system (QMS) in higher education institutions (HEIs) in developing successful employability attributes among graduates. Considering industry as a prominent stakeholder in academia, the authors took industry–academia collaboration as the mediating variable.

Design/methodology/approach

Using the European Foundation for Quality Management model, the author analyzed how QMS in public HEIs located in London, the United Kingdom (UK), impacts business management, computer science and engineering students' employability. Following the nonprobability convenience sampling technique, this study included data from 324 local and international students.

Findings

The structural analysis identified QMS as a significant factor in enhancing students' employability, and industry–academia collaboration is found to act as a partial mediator in this relationship.

Originality/value

The management of HEIs in developing countries can take valuable guidelines from this study and integrate QMS in their institutions in developing their students' employability, as it is being done by HEIs in the UK.

Details

Journal of Economic and Administrative Sciences, vol. 40 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1026-4116

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 17 July 2017

Soohyung Joo, Sujin Kim and Youngseek Kim

The purpose of this paper is to examine how health scientists’ attitudinal, social, and resource factors affect their data reuse behaviors.

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine how health scientists’ attitudinal, social, and resource factors affect their data reuse behaviors.

Design/methodology/approach

A survey method was utilized to investigate to what extent attitudinal, social, and resource factors influence health scientists’ data reuse behaviors. The health scientists’ data reuse research model was validated by using partial least squares (PLS) based structural equation modeling technique with a total of 161 health scientists in the USA.

Findings

The analysis results showed that health scientists’ data reuse intentions are driven by attitude toward data reuse, community norm of data reuse, disciplinary research climate, and organizational support factors. This research also found that both perceived usefulness of data reuse and perceived concern involved in data reuse have significant influences on health scientists’ attitude toward data reuse.

Research limitations/implications

This research evaluated its newly proposed research model based on the theory of planned behavior using a sample from the community of scientists’ scholar database. This research showed an overall picture of how attitudinal, social, and resource factors influence health scientists’ data reuse behaviors. This research is limited due to its sample size and low response rate, so this study is considered as an exploratory study rather than a confirmatory study.

Practical implications

This research suggested for health science research communities, academic institutions, and libraries that diverse strategies need to be utilized to promote health scientists’ data reuse behaviors.

Originality/value

This research is one of initial studies in scientific data reuse which provided a holistic map about health scientists’ data sharing behaviors. The findings of this study provide the groundwork for strategies to facilitate data reuse practice in health science areas.

Details

Aslib Journal of Information Management, vol. 69 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2050-3806

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 September 2007

Jeremy Turk

The area of behavioural phenotype research and related clinical practice is now recognised as one of high relevance to all practitioners who help people with learning…

Abstract

The area of behavioural phenotype research and related clinical practice is now recognised as one of high relevance to all practitioners who help people with learning disabilities, whatever their age. Knowledge continues to accumulate rapidly regarding aspects pertaining to aetiology, likely developmental, emotional and behavioural challenges, useful multidisciplinary interventions and supports and long‐term prognosis. This paper reviews the concept, its history and recent developments, focusing on those aspects which are of particular importance to clinical and other care and support professionals and their clients. There is a continuing need for widespread dissemination of the large body of relevant information, and its application to practice in order to maximise benefits for people with learning disabilities and their families.

Details

Advances in Mental Health and Learning Disabilities, vol. 1 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1753-0180

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 22 December 2023

Benedetta Coluccia, Pamela Palmi and Mladen Krstić

The present study is aimed at developing a multi-level framework for assessing circularity in agri-food industries by providing the user with a step-by-step approach and selecting…

Abstract

Purpose

The present study is aimed at developing a multi-level framework for assessing circularity in agri-food industries by providing the user with a step-by-step approach and selecting a customized set of indicators capable of accurately assessing the circular economy (CE) level.

Design/methodology/approach

The framework is composed of four stages. In the first stage, a CE theoretical model based on operations, product and services, culture, organization and ecosystem criteria has been implemented and adapted to the agri-food sector. In the second stage, users are required to collect a set of indicators capable of measuring each criterion. In the third stage, a weight is assigned to each indicator using analytical hierarchy process (AHP). Lastly, a geometric multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) model, called axial distance-based aggregated measurement (ADAM) model, is used to normalize, assess and aggregate the results and produce final scores for the different alternatives to be ranked based on their final circularity scores.

Findings

The model can be a useful tool to support corporate decisions in the CE, making entrepreneurs aware of their starting level. It indicates the extent to which companies are implementing circular business models across different dimensions and, thus, where they are still lacking.

Originality/value

Beyond the attempts to measure the circularity of corporate performance from a purely environmental perspective, the study adopts a holistic view, considering the complexity and disruption of all the principles of the CE.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 126 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

Keywords

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