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Scientists' data discovery and reuse behavior: (Meta)data fitness for use and the FAIR data principles
Author(s) -
Bishop Bradley Wade,
Hank Carolyn,
Webster Joel,
Howard Rebecca
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
proceedings of the association for information science and technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.193
H-Index - 14
ISSN - 2373-9231
DOI - 10.1002/pra2.4
Subject(s) - reuse , data science , computer science , interoperability , schedule , data quality , world wide web , engineering , marketing , business , metric (unit) , waste management , operating system
Environmental science researchers frequently must work at regional and global scales that require them to search for, evaluate, and reuse data collected by others. This study assesses science data reusers' information‐seeking behavior to determine fitness for use , a concept from consumer behavior research that explains how consumers define and assess product quality and compatibility to satisfy their specific needs. Using a critical incident technique, 22 researchers in earth science described their most recent data discovery resulting in reuse. An interview schedule derived from the FAIR Data Principles framed participants' information‐seeking behavior along a sequence of actions, which included finding, accessing, making interoperable, and reusing data. Researchers' perspectives on how they discovered and evaluated data for reuse gives new insights into fitness for use of data by human consumers, and contributes to considerations for furthering work into machine‐actionable data and learning.