Open data

Accountability and transparency

Bibliographic Data

ID5261111
AuthorsMatthew S Mayernik (0000-0002-4122-0910, NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research, corresponding author)
Year2017
Volume4
Issue2
Pages205395171771885
Publication date2017-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueBig Data & Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2053-9517 • E-ISSN: 2053-9517
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/2053951717718853
OpenAlexW2729600796
LanguageEN
Citations received18
References cited23

The movements by national governments, funding agencies, universities, and research communities toward “open data” face many difficult challenges. In high-level visions of open data, researchers’ data and metadata practices are expected to be robust and structured. The integration of the internet into scientific institutions amplifies these expectations. When examined critically, however, the data and metadata practices of scholarly researchers often appear incomplete or deficient. The concepts of “accountability” and “transparency” provide insight in understanding these perceived gaps. Researchers’ primary accountabilities are related to meeting the expectations of research competency, not to external standards of data deposition or metadata creation. Likewise, making data open in a transparent way can involve a significant investment of time and resources with no obvious benefits. This paper uses differing notions of accountability and transparency to conceptualize “open data” as the result of ongoing achievements, not one-time acts

Accountability · Business · Computer security · Data science · Metadata · Open data · Open government · Open Science · Political science · Public relations · Sociology · Vision · World Wide Web · Computer Science · Data Quality and Management · Research Data Management Practices · Scientific Computing and Data Management

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