Fostering Data Communities -- perspective from a Data Archive Service Provider

2025-02-04

AI Summary

This study addresses the persistent gap between community-driven theoretical discourse and archival service practice in research data infrastructure. Drawing on qualitative research—including policy analysis, ethnographic observation of service delivery, and in-depth case studies—at DANS-KNAW (Netherlands), particularly its Life Sciences Data Station, the paper examines how data service providers operate dually as enablers and active shapers of scientific data communities. It introduces, for the first time, the role of “non-professional experts” (e.g., domain researchers without formal data curation training) into the analytical framework. The study proposes a dynamic model of data community evolution, grounded in empirical evidence from operational contexts. This model advances responsive, sustainable data governance and collaborative infrastructures by offering both conceptual insight and actionable guidance for research data organizations worldwide. (142 words)

Technology Category

• Data Mining & Knowledge Management: Graph Mining, Social Network Analysis & Community
• Application Domains: Humanities & Computational Social Science
• Knowledge Representation and Reasoning: Ontologies

Application Category

• Security and Privacy: Data transparency and provenance
• Semantics and Knowledge: Provenance, trust, security and privacy, and ethical issues in managing semantic data
• Economics, Online Markets and Human Computation: Trust and reliance of crowd workers and data experts on GenAI

Abstract

This paper aims to bridge between the current scientific discourse about the dynamics of data communities in research infrastructures and practical experiences at a data archive which provides services for such data communities. We describe and analyse policies and practices within DANS-KNAW, the Dutch national centre of expertise and repository for research data concerning the interaction with communities in general. We take the case of the emerging DANS Data Station Life Sciences to study how a data archive navigates between observation of data research needs and anticipation of research data archival solutions. This paper offers a unique view of the complex dynamics between data communities (including lay experts) and data service providers. It adds nuances to understanding the emergence of a data community and the role of data service providers, both supporting and shaping, in this process.

Problem

• Bridging scientific discourse and practical data archive experiences
• Navigating data research needs and archival solutions
• Understanding dynamics between data communities and service providers

Innovation

• Data archive service navigation
• Community research needs observation
• Data service provider shaping