Quality of Data Standards: Empirical Findings from XBRL

Abstract

Certain data can help improve the of the data created according to the standards. But data do not always improve data quality. We introduce the notion of quality of data standards and argue that of data is affected by the of the used. We develop metrics for assessing of data standards. The metrics are evaluated empirically using company financial reports created using the eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) data standards. Our findings show the use frequency of standard data elements roughly follows a power law distribution. Tradeoffs exist between relevancy and completeness dimensions and between a single user perspective and user community perspective.