Searching Data: A Review of Observational Data Retrieval Practices in Selected Disciplines

Gregory, Kathleen; Groth, Paul; Cousijn, Helena; Scharnhorst, Andrea; Wyatt, Sally

doi:10.1002/asi.24165

Cited by 52 publications

(83 citation statements)

References 97 publications

(212 reference statements)

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“…In all of these cases, the data exists in a scattered manner, and the company provides value by gathering, organizing and releasing it as a constructed dataset. Data Markets exist as a way for organizations to realize value for their data [15,54,56]. While the user is able to download the entire dataset from a data market, it is also possible to access subsets of the data as needed to construct a dataset.…”

Section: The Constructive Dataset Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Search for datasets is often complex and shows characteristics of exploratory search tasks, involving multiple queries, iterations and refinement of the original information need, as well as complex cognitive processing [82]. There are many possible reasons that users have diverse interaction styles, from context and domain specificity [54] to uncertainty in the search workflow itself [26]. It is important to note that users have different interaction styles with respect to 'getting the data'.…”

Section: Information Retrieval Building Blocksmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Dataset search: a survey

et al. 2019

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Generating value from data requires the ability to find, access and make sense of datasets. There are many efforts underway to encourage data sharing and reuse, from scientific publishers asking authors to submit data alongside manuscripts to data marketplaces, open data portals and data communities. Google recently beta released a search service for datasets, which allows users to discover data stored in various online repositories via keyword queries. These developments foreshadow an emerging research field around dataset search or retrieval that broadly encompasses frameworks, methods and tools that help match a user data need against a collection of datasets. Here, we survey the state of the art of research and commercial systems in dataset retrieval. We identify what makes dataset search a research field in its own right, with unique challenges and methods and highlight open problems. We look at approaches and implementations from related areas dataset search is drawing upon, including information retrieval, databases, entity-centric and tabular search in order to identify possible paths to resolve these open problems as well as immediate next steps that will take the field forward.

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Section: The Constructive Dataset Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Information Retrieval Building Blocksmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dataset search: a survey

et al. 2019

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“…Gregory et al. [10] provide an overview of data retrieval practices in different domains. Most of the studies focus on why and how researchers search for data sets.…”

Section: Background and Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Questions & Variables 10 Questions & Variables from research data archived in the GESIS data catalogue. 103,828…”

Section: 699mentioning

confidence: 99%

A Digital Library for Research Data and Related Information in the Social Sciences

Hienert

Kern

Boland

et al. 2019

2019 ACM/IEEE Joint Conference on Digital Libraries (JCDL)

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In the social sciences, researchers search for information on the Web, but this is most often distributed on different websites, search portals, digital libraries, data archives, and databases. In this work, we present an integrated search system for social science information that allows finding information around research data in a single digital library. Users can search for research data sets, publications, survey variables, questions from questionnaires, survey instruments, and tools. Information items are linked to each other so that users can see, for example, which publications contain data citations to research data. The integration and linking of different kinds of information increase their visibility so that it is easier for researchers to find information for re-use. In a log-based usage study, we found that users search across different information types, that search sessions contain a high rate of positive signals and that link information is often explored. CCS CONCEPTS• Information systems~Digital libraries and archives

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“…For each of these aspects, people have to make sense of the content and context of a dataset to make an informed decision about whether to use it for their task. This process demonstrates unique interaction characteristics, which have been subject to several human data interaction studies (Gregory et al, 2017;Kern and Mathiak, 2015;Koesten et al, 2017;Boukhelifa et al, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Everything you always wanted to know about a dataset: Studies in data summarisation

Koesten

Simperl

Blount

et al. 2020

International Journal of Human-Computer Studies

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Summarising data as text helps people make sense of it. It also improves data discovery, as search algorithms can match this text against keyword queries. In this paper, we explore the characteristics of text summaries of data in order to understand how meaningful summaries look like. We present two complementary studies: a data-search diary study with 69 students, which offers insight into the information needs of people searching for data; and a summarisation study, with a lab and a crowdsourcing component with overall 80 data-literate participants, which produced summaries for 25 datasets. In each study we carried out a qualitative analysis to identify key themes and commonly mentioned dataset attributes, which people consider when searching and making sense of data. The results helped us design a template to create more meaningful textual representations of data, alongside guidelines for improving data-search experience overall.

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Searching Data: A Review of Observational Data Retrieval Practices in Selected Disciplines

Cited by 52 publications

References 97 publications

Dataset search: a survey

Dataset search: a survey

A Digital Library for Research Data and Related Information in the Social Sciences

Everything you always wanted to know about a dataset: Studies in data summarisation

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