Contemporary Issues of Open Data in Information Systems Research: Considerations and Recommendations

Authors

Georg J.P. Link, University of Nebraska at OmahaFollow
Kevin Lumbard, University of Nebraska at OmahaFollow
Kieran Conboy, NUI Galway
Michael Feldman, University of Zurich
Joseph Feller, University College Cork
Jordana George, Baylor University
Matt Germonprez, University of Nebraska at OmahaFollow
Sean Goggins, University of Missouri
Debora Jeske, University College Cork
Gaye Kiely, University College Cork
Kristen Schuster, King's College London
Matt Willis, Oxford Internet Institute

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

11-2017

Publication Title

Communications of the Association for Information Systems

Volume

41

Issue

1

First Page

587

Last Page

610

Abstract

Researchers, governments, and funding agencies are calling on research disciplines to embrace open data - data that is publicly accessible and usable beyond the original authors. The premise is that research efforts can draw and generate several benefits from open data, as such data might provide further insight, enabling the replication and extension of current knowledge in different contexts. These potential benefits, coupled with a global push towards open data policies, brings open data into the agenda of research disciplines – including Information Systems (IS). This paper responds to these developments as follows. We outline themes in the ongoing discussion around open data in the IS discipline. The themes fall into two clusters: (1) The motivation for open data includes themes of mandated sharing, benefits to the research process, extending the life of research data, and career impact; (2) The implementation of open data includes themes of governance, socio-technical system, standards, data quality, and ethical considerations. In this paper, we outline the findings from a pre-ICIS 2016 workshop on the topic of open data. The workshop discussion confirmed themes and identified issues that require attention in terms of the approaches that are currently utilized by IS researchers. The IS discipline offers a unique knowledge base, tools, and methods that can advance open data across disciplines. Based on our findings, we provide suggestions on how IS researchers can drive the open data conversation. Further, we provide advice for the adoption and establishment of procedures and guidelines for the archival, evaluation, and use of open data.

Comments

Copyright © 2017 by the Association for Information Systems. Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and full citation on the first page. Copyright for components of this work owned by others than the Association for Information Systems must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, to republish, to post on servers, or to redistribute to lists requires prior specific permission and/or fee. Request permission to publish from: AIS Administrative Office, P.O. Box 2712 Atlanta, GA, 30301-2712 Attn: Reprints or via e-mail from publications@aisnet.org

Available at: http://aisel.aisnet.org/cais/vol41/iss1/25

Recommended Citation

Link, Georg J.P.; Lumbard, Kevin; Conboy, Kieran; Feldman, Michael; Feller, Joseph; George, Jordana; Germonprez, Matt; Goggins, Sean; Jeske, Debora; Kiely, Gaye; Schuster, Kristen; and Willis, Matt (2017) "Contemporary Issues of Open Data in Information Systems Research: Considerations and Recommendations," Communications of the Association for Information Systems: Vol. 41 , Article 25.