Interest Group Other Output Bridging the Data Discovery Gap: User-Centric Recommendations for Research Data Repositories

Despite substantial investment in research data infrastructure, data discovery remains a fundamental challenge in the era of open science. The proliferation of repositories and the rapid growth of deposited data have not resulted in a corresponding improvement in data findability. Researchers continue to struggle to find data that are relevant to their work, revealing a persistent gap between data availability and data discoverability. Without rich, high-quality metadata, robust and user-centred data discovery systems, and a deeper understanding of how different researchers seek and... View More

March 10, 2026

Interest Group Other Output An analysis of crosswalks from research data schemas to Schema.org

The increased number of data repositories has greatly increased the availability of open data. To enable broad discovery and access to research dataset, some data repositories have begun leveraging the web architecture by embedding structured metadata markup in dataset web landing pages using vocabularies from Schema.org and extensions. This paper aims to examine metadata interoperability for supporting global data discovery. Specifically, the paper reports a survey on which metadata schema has been adopted by participating data repositories, and presents an analysis of crosswalks... View More

March 10, 2026

Interest Group Other Output Data Discovery Paradigms: User Requirements and Recommendations for Data Repositories

As data repositories make more data openly available it becomes challenging for researchers to find what they need either from a repository or through web search engines. This study attempts to investigate data users’ requirements and the role that data repositories can play in supporting data discoverability by meeting those requirements. We collected 79 data discovery use cases (or data search scenarios), from which we derived nine functional requirements for data repositories through qualitative analysis. We then applied usability heuristic evaluation and expert... View More

March 10, 2026

Interest Group Supporting Output Ten principles to improve dataset discoverability

Review Status: Endorsed

The  FAIR (meta) data principles provide overarching guidelines to make metadata and data Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable. While significant effort has been dedicated to specific recommendations that enable best practices in implementing FAIR principles, particularly from a data curation perspective, this document focuses primarily on enhancing the discoverability of data from the perspectives of data searchers and data users, including both human users and machine-based systems.   The document outlines ten principles, along with practical implementation recommendations for each  principle, for improving... View More

July 15, 2024

Interest Group Supporting Output A survey of current practices in data search services

Review Status: Endorsed

Data Discovery Paradigms IG Group co-chairs: Siri Jodha Khalsa, Anita de Waard, Mingfang Wu, Fotis Psomopoulos Supporting Output title: A survey of current practices in data search services Contributors: SiriJodha Khalsa, Peter Cotroneo, Mingfang Wu DOI: doi.org/10.17632/7j43z6n22z.1 Citation: SiriJodha Khalsa, Peter Cotroneo, Mingfang Wu (2018): A survey of current practices in data search services. DOI: doi.org/10.17632/7j43z6n22z.1. Summary: Relevancy ranking is an important component of making a data repository’s search system responsive to data seekers’ needs. The Research Data Alliance (RDA) Data Discovery Paradigms... View More

June 15, 2018

Interest Group Supporting Output Data Discovery Paradigms: User Requirements and Recommendations for Data Repositories

Review Status: Endorsed

Data Discovery Paradigms IG Group co-chairs: Siri Jodha Khalsa, Anita de Waard, Mingfang Wu, Fotis Psomopoulos Supporting Output title:  Data Discovery Paradigms: User Requirements and Recommendations for Data Repositories Authors: Mingfang Wu, Fotis Psomopoulos, Siri Jodha Khalsa, Anita de Waard DOI:  http://doi.org/10.5334/dsj-2019-003 Citation:  Wu, M., Psomopoulos, F., Khalsa, S.J. and de Waard, A., 2019. Data Discovery Paradigms: User Requirements and Recommendations for Data Repositories. Data Science Journal, 18(1), p.3. DOI: http://doi.org/10.5334/dsj-2019-003 Summary: As data repositories make more data openly available it becomes challenging for researchers to... View More

December 10, 2017

Interest Group Supporting Output Eleven Quick Tips for Finding Research Data

Review Status: Endorsed

Data Discovery Paradigms IG Group co-chairs: Siri Jodha Khalsa, Anita de Waard, Mingfang Wu, Fotis Psomopoulos Supporting Output title:  Eleven Quick Tips for Finding Research Data Authors: Kathleen Gregory, Siri Jodha Khalsa, William K. Michener, Fotis E. Psomopoulos, Anita de Waard, Mingfang Wu DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1006038 Citation:  Gregory K, Khalsa SJ, Michener WK, Psomopoulos FE, de Waard A, Wu M (2018) Eleven quick tips for finding research data. PLoS Comput Biol 14(4): e1006038. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1006038 Note: This is the published and updated version of the “Ten Quick Tips for Finding... View More

December 10, 2017