Asiya Abdurahman
Research Mentor: Anthony Million
Mentor Department: ICPSR, ISR
Author(s): Anthony Million, Geonyoung Lee, Asiya Abdurahman
Session: Session 2 (10:00 AM – 10:50 AM)
Presentation Type: Poster 11
Abstract
Discovering and evaluating secondary data are important within the social sciences. And, the growing number of online information sources has made it more complex to identify and use secondary data. This study’s goal is to determine how researchers search for data and what types of information are important for academic research. The Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) hosts over 20,000 social science datasets and provides a web-based search tool to support data discovery, but there is a gap in understanding between data repository designers and the social scientific community about which aspects are important for successful dataset search. This project aims to address this gap in our understanding by examining the specific data-related attributes most important to researchers who use ICPSR and other secondary data sources, such as the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series. This study will build on work by individuals who have previously published research using ICPSR data, by reviewing the ICPSR Bibliography Data-related Literature and compiling contact information, specifically the email addresses of the possible participants who will be invited to participate in a Qualtrics-based survey designed to assess the types of documentation and information that are most important during the research process. Next, the survey responses will be systematically analyzed. This will identify patterns in researchers’ information needs and preferences related to data discovery and information presentation within the ICPSR catalog space, specifically examining how users prioritize documentation availability and/or quality, such as codebooks and curated data. By using both qualitative and quantitative methods, this research project aims to generate actionable findings that can inform improvements to data discovery tools at ICPSR and confirm results from a prior research project (Million et al., 2024). Ultimately, this research can contribute to a better understanding of the metadata describing secondary data, which is crucial for conducting social science research. The study of how researchers search for and evaluate secondary data, can support the development of more effective user-centered information systems.
