Abstract
The sharing of research data allows for information reuse and knowledge advancement but its realization is often a challenge and seldom successful in practice. We propose a workflow for the design of a User Support System (USS) aimed at tutoring research groups in data sharing by considering their social and domain backgrounds. Our engagement approach focuses on multidisciplinary geospatial research, particularly when interoperable data sharing is required. Specifically, we first characterize the research community on the basis of the behavior and competences in data management by its groups and then target the needs of the latter with specific facilities. We address for the first time in literature the issue of modeling research groups as targets of the USS and provide a roadmap to standardize USS activities across different communities. We describe the implementation of the workflow in the context of an Italian research project and we assess the impact of the USS in terms of increase in the number of nodes and resources in the project’s data infrastructure, and of fulfilment of the expectations by the research groups.
Highlights
The digital revolution of the recent decades has created an explosion in the capacity to manage vast and complex data volumes, allowing research groups to share the groundwork of their publications
This paper describes an approach to engage multidisciplinary research groups in data sharing by implementing a workflow-based User Support System (USS)
Its application to the RITMARE case study suggests that it represents an essential component of any engagement activity, addressing organizational and coordination obstacles encountered in other community (Nedovic-Budic and Pinto, 2001, Hartter et al 2013)
Summary
The digital revolution of the recent decades has created an explosion in the capacity to manage vast and complex data volumes, allowing research groups to share the groundwork of their publications. To enable transition between these states, we propose a workflow to design a User Support System (USS) intended as “the assistance provided to the users of technology and other products” in the context of the e-Science infrastructure (Chunpir et al 2014). This change in data sharing practices amounts to shifting from passive actions, which are not assumed to achieve the intended outputs, to active and motivated contributions that can effectively change scientific practices on the long-term as the difficulties of distinct research groups are considered separately by the USS. In Section “Concluding remarks” we summarize the proposed approach and outline its limits and future outlook
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