Data objects and documenting scientific processes: An analysis of data events in biodiversity data papers

TL;DR

This study analyzes how data events are documented in biodiversity data papers, revealing the complexity and messiness of data processes and challenging the notion of data papers as a distinct genre.

Contribution

It provides a detailed content analysis of data events in biodiversity data papers, offering insights into their documentation and implications for data publication practices.

Findings

Data events are often described together in the same sentence.

Data papers show messiness in documenting data processes.

Results challenge the distinctiveness of data papers as a genre.

Abstract

The data paper, an emerging scholarly genre, describes research datasets and is intended to bridge the gap between the publication of research data and scientific articles. Research examining how data papers report data events, such as data transactions and manipulations, is limited. The research reported on in this paper addresses this limitation and investigated how data events are inscribed in data papers. A content analysis was conducted examining the full texts of 82 data papers, drawn from the curated list of data papers connected to the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). Data events recorded for each paper were organized into a set of 17 categories. Many of these categories are described together in the same sentence, which indicates the messiness of data events in the laboratory space. The findings challenge the degrees to which data papers are a distinct genre compared to research papers and they describe data-centric research processes in a through way. This paper also discusses how our results could inform a better data publication ecosystem in the future.