What Does Information Science Offer for Data Science Research?: A Review of Data and Information Ethics Literature

TL;DR

This review explores how information science contributes to data science, especially in addressing data ethics and bias, emphasizing its human-centered, social-behavioral perspectives and ongoing influence on the field.

Contribution

It highlights the role of information science in advancing data ethics and outlines the historical and future directions of this interdisciplinary research area.

Findings

Information science offers valuable human-centered perspectives for data ethics.

Research in information science has contributed to understanding data bias and ethical issues.

The literature indicates ongoing growth and integration of data ethics in information science.

Abstract

This paper reviews literature pertaining to the development of data science as a discipline, current issues with data bias and ethics, and the role that the discipline of information science may play in addressing these concerns. Information science research and researchers have much to offer for data science, owing to their background as transdisciplinary scholars who apply human-centered and social-behavioral perspectives to issues within natural science disciplines. Information science researchers have already contributed to a humanistic approach to data ethics within the literature and an emphasis on data science within information schools all but ensures that this literature will continue to grow in coming decades. This review article serves as a reference for the history, current progress, and potential future directions of data ethics research within the corpus of information science literature.