DATA USE AND REUSE

 

INTRODUCTION

Upon storing data for preservation, it is expected for the data to be retrieved for usage in the digital curation cycle. The preserved data can be used or reused for a particular purpose according to its value. Data use is the process of using stored data for the original intention that motivated the collection, analysis and preservation of the data in question (Pasquetto et al., 2017). The original intention might be to answer a particular contextual hypothesis. On the other hand, data reuse is the process of using stored data to answer a secondary intention (van de Sandt, et al. 2019).  The secondary intention might be carried out for replicability, reproducibility and integration for origination of new innovations, new insights and solutions to new problems (Mwinami et al., 2022).  

DATA REUSE STAGES

Data Reuse Stages (Wang et al., 2021)

Wang et al. (2021) postulate that data reuse involves three main stages which are initiation, exploration and collection and repurpose.

1.     Initiation

The researcher understands the need to find data to solve a particular problem and envisions the possibility of reusing data in coming up with solution to the problem. The experience and/or knowledge of reusing data shapes the researcher’s encouragement to drop or carry out the exercise of data reuse. The researcher makes a decision to engage or not to engage in data reuse.

2.     Exploration and Collection

The researcher embarks on the journey of finding the data by performing repeated actions to achieve the desired outcomes. The stage involves discovering and acquiring data entity, understanding data context and choosing appropriate data based on relevant information scaffolds. The researcher is also involved in removing duplicates and getting insights from peers and mentors on where to the intended data sets for reuse. It is also worth noting that the researcher might find problems in collecting data for reuse because of insufficient data documentation, lack of accessibility, lack of specialized knowledge, failure of human scaffolds and technical issues.

3.     Repurpose

The stage involves wrangling and integrating the collected data to match the secondary intention of the exercise and the reuse of the data. Success at this stage depends on one’s expertise in data handling and knowledge of the subject in focus.

DATA SHARING

At the helm of data use and reuse is data sharing and researchers agree on the need to share data, nonetheless, the belief is far from data sharing practice (Mwinami, 2022). The spirit of data sharing is being trampled upon by researchers’ fears of discrepancies and errors being unraveled, insufficient funding, time constraints to prepare data for access and reuse, fears of data being misused or misinterpreted, legal constraints, desire to publish results before releasing the data, need to publish first and history of not being acknowledged.

CONCLUSION

Data use and reuse are the engines of innovations and new insights. Researchers need to be shrewd in data appraisal and storage practices to ensure easy data availability for use and reuse at a particular point in time. There is a serious need to abide by the FAIR principles to fuel data sharing and reuse.

 

REFERENCES

Mwinami, N. V., Dulle, F. W. & Mtega, W. P. (2022). A study of data sources for accessibility and reuse practices among agricultural researchers in Tanzania. Journal of Agricultural and Food Information, 23(3-4), 71-94. https://doi.org/10.1080/10496505.2023.2190899

Pasquetto, I. V., Randles, B. M., & Borgman, C. L. (2017). On the reuse of scientific data. Data Science Journal, 16(8), 1-36. https://doi.org/10.5334/dsj-2017-008

Van de Sandt, S., Dallmeier-Tiessen, S., Lavasa, A., & Petras, V. (2022) The Definition of Reuse. Data Science Journal, 18(22), 1–19. https://doi. org/10.5334/dsj-2019-022

Wang, X., Duan, Q., & Liang, M. (2019).  Understanding the process of data reuse: An extensive review. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 72(9), 1161-1182. https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.24483