To be meaningful, data metrics must be contextualized

Evidence from bibliometric studies

The Meaningful Data Counts project, a collaboration between the Scholcomm lab and Make Data Count, researched data usage and data citation behaviors to better understand the role that open data play in scholarly communication. You can read about their findings in the publications below:

• Survey of researcher practices, preferences, and motivations for data citation across disciplines:  Gregory et al. Tracing data: A survey investigating disciplinary differences in data citation, Quantitative Science Studies.
• Interviews with researchers across disciplines on how they want to be recognized and rewarded for data sharing and reuse, exploring also the role of data citations and other data metrics: Gregory et al. Rewarding data sharing and reuse: Initial results of an interview study, 27th International Conference on Science, Technology and Innovation Indicators.

The following studies also reported findings on data usage trends and practices:

• Krause et al. Who Re-Uses Data? A Bibliometric Analysis of Dataset Citations, arXiv.
• Khan et al. Measuring the impact of biodiversity datasets: Data reuse, citations and altmetrics, Scientometrics.
• Khan et al. Data sharing and reuse practices: disciplinary differences and improvements needed, Online Information Review.

Resources

Read on for additional resources about data usage, data metrics, and Make Data Count activities.

• Perspective piece with a call to action for the prioritization of data metrics: ‘Building Trust: Data Metrics as a Focal Point for Responsible Data Stewardship’.
• White paper from a workshop on open data that includes recommendations for different stakeholders on steps to advance data sharing and reuse practices: ‘Advancing data sharing and reuse: Insights from a workshop at the Researcher to Reader conference’.
• Book that discusses the development of data metrics, and the need for open, transparent, and community-led approaches to establish these metrics as the new standard: ‘Open Data Metrics: Lighting the Fire’.
• STM, DataCite, and Crossref Joint Statement on Research Data calling for the adoption of data citation best practices
• Webinar ‘FORAGE: the hunt for existing data citations’
• Webinar ‘EXPLORE: the need for an open classification system’
• Webinar ‘BEGIN: Metadata for meaningful data metrics’
• Webinar ‘Principios FAIR y la implementación de flujos de trabajo para la gestión de datos en la investigación’ (In Spanish)