SIS Research Forum with Digital Archives Expert Dr. Jinfang Niu

The School of Information Sciences invites you to hear Dr. Jinfang Niu speak on “Perceived Documentation Quality of Social Science Data,” Friday, June 19, from 11:15 – 12:00 in Communications Bldg. Room 420. Dr. Jinfang Niu is visiting the School to grow acquainted with its students and faculty as she considers a visiting academic appointment for the 2009-2010 academic year. Due to increased student interest, the School seeks to strengthen its archives and records management areas.

Dr. Niu’s talk will identify impacting factors of perceived documentation quality and find out how perceived documentation quality affects secondary data use. This talk is free and open to the public. A webcast will be available during and after the presentation.

What: SIS Research Forum with Dr. Jinfang Niu

When: Friday, June 19, 11:15 am – 12:00 pm

Where: Communications Bldg. Room 420

ABSTRACT:

Perceived Documentation Quality of Social Science Data

The goals of this study are to identify impacting factors of perceived documentation quality and find out how perceived documentation quality affects secondary data use. To help identify the impacting factors of perceived documentation quality, documentation of social science data was investigated as a knowledge transfer channel between data producers and secondary data users. A general knowledge transfer model was formulated based on literature in knowledge management and then applied to characterize the knowledge senders, receivers, knowledge transferred, and knowledge transfer channels in secondary data use. In doing this, four possible impacting factors of perceived documentation quality were identified: data producers’ incentives and ability, data users’ absorptive capacity, the existence of intermediaries between data producers and users, and data’s vulnerability to the tacit knowledge problem. Hypotheses about how each factor affects perceived documentation quality were formulated.

Interviews and surveys were conducted with secondary users of social science data. Preliminary analysis of the interviews helped the survey design, such as deciding the survey population and units of analysis, and identifying indicators of users’ absorptive capacity. A Documentation Evaluation Model (DEM) was constructed as a tool to assess perceived documentation quality. The reliability and validity of DEM were tested based on the survey and interview data collected for this study. I found DEM was reliable and valid in general with several exceptions. Hypotheses tests proved that effects of the proposed four impacting factors of perceived documentation quality. Data produced for sharing are better documented than data produced for self-use. Users with stronger absorptive capacity tend to perceive the documentation they use as better than users with weaker absorptive capacity. Intermediaries such as data archives have been effective in improving documentation quality of data produced for sharing. Data less vulnerable to the tacit knowledge problem, such as quantitative survey data and data about straightforward facts, are perceived as better documented than data more vulnerable to the tacit knowledge problem, such as qualitative data. Inadequate documentation increases the costs of use and may turn users away in some situations. However, users’ incentives to use secondary data mostly depend on how well the data fit their information needs rather than documentation quality. A well-documented dataset will not be used if it doesn’t answer users’ research questions. Users will not give up using a dataset simply because it is poorly documented. Their decisions to use or not depend on how much they can benefit from using the data, the cost of overcoming inadequate documentation, and the potential cost to collect the same data. Users often need to seek information not provided in documentation because of inadequate documentation (insufficient, hard to use, inaccurate), inherent limitations of documentation, users’ low absorptive capacity, convenience, and for social and psychological reasons. In seeking outside information, users tend to consult multiple sources and channels. Publications based on the same data are the most frequently used outside source of information. Email or telephone is the primary channel through which users seek outside information from people.

BIO of Dr. Jinfang Niu

Dr. Niu received her Ph.D. in information science in April from the University of Michigan. She earned both her MLS and BLS in Library Studies from Wuhan University in China. Her dissertation, “Perceived Documentation Quality of Social Science Data,” will be discussed at this presentation.

Before obtaining her PhD, Dr. Niu was a librarian at Tsinghua University Library in Beijing China where she designed metadata and did system development for preserving mathematic resources. She also participated in the Million Book Project, THADL, which was a part of the Tsinghua Architecture Digital Library project.