Co-creating a Data Asset Inventory for Equity-Oriented Research
Morgan Stirling, Amy Freier, Nathan Nickel · 2024
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Description
Research data catalogs help scientists find datasets, but a catalog written in stigmatizing language can quietly shut people out. Morgan Stirling, Amy Freier, and Nathan Nickel describe building an equity-minded catalog for a Canadian health data network in a 2024 paper. The inventory lists what each dataset holds, where it covers, and where it falls short.
A mixed team of computer scientists, data experts, and equity specialists built the inventory together, arguing out shared definitions category by category. The talks exposed how differently each field understands equity, and the specialists had to teach as well as advocate, which slowed the work. Datasets were then tagged under the agreed definitions, using language chosen to avoid stigma. The authors share the process, friction included, as a template for networks that want their data infrastructure to serve equity research.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Morgan Stirling, Amy Freier, Nathan Nickel |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2024 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 2 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |