A Digital Library for Research Data and Related Information in the Social Sciences

TL;DR

This paper introduces an integrated digital library system for social science research data and related information, enabling unified search and linking across diverse data types to facilitate easier discovery and reuse.

Contribution

It presents a novel integrated search platform that links research data, publications, and survey information in social sciences, improving accessibility and discoverability.

Findings

Users search across multiple information types

High rate of positive signals in search sessions

Link information is frequently explored

Abstract

In the social sciences, researchers search for information on the Web, but this is most often distributed on different websites, search portals, digital libraries, data archives, and databases. In this work, we present an integrated search system for social science information that allows finding information around research data in a single digital library. Users can search for research data sets, publications, survey variables, questions from questionnaires, survey instruments, and tools. Information items are linked to each other so that users can see, for example, which publications contain data citations to research data. The integration and linking of different kinds of information increase their visibility so that it is easier for researchers to find information for re-use. In a log-based usage study, we found that users search across different information types, that search sessions contain a high rate of positive signals and that link information is often explored.