Comparison of metadata quality in open data portals using the Analytic Hierarchy Process

Abstract

The quality of metadata in open data portals plays a crucial role for the success of open data. E-government, for example, have to manage accurate and complete metadata information to guarantee the reliability and foster the reputation of e-government to the public. Measuring and comparing the quality of open data is not a straightforward process because it implies to take into consideration multiple quality dimensions whose quality may vary from one another, as well as various open data stakeholders who – depending on their role/needs – may have different preferences regarding the dimensions’ importance. To address this Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) problem, and since data quality is hardly considered in existing e-government models, this paper develops an Open Data Portal Quality (ODPQ) framework that enables end-users to easily and in real-time assess/rank open data portals. From a theoretical standpoint, the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is used to integrate various data quality dimensions and end-user preferences. From a practical standpoint, the proposed framework is used to compare over 250 open data portals, powered by organizations across 43 different countries. The findings of our study reveals that today’s organizations do not pay sufficient heed to the management of datasets, resources and associated metadata that they are currently publishing on their portal.