RIDAL - A Language for Research Information Definition Argumentation

• Main Author: Mathias Thomas Riechert
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Ubiquity Press 2017-02-01
• Series: Data Science Journal
• Subjects: research information definition argumentation; research information standardisation; computer-supported argumentation visualisation; issue-based information systems (IBIS); wicked problem
• Online Access: http://datascience.codata.org/articles/612

Information about the research process is gaining importance for research documentation and evaluation. With the increased usage of such research information, the requirements for data quality and interpretation consistency are increasing. An agreed understanding of the concepts of research information is therefore crucial for fair science evaluation and science policy. Initiatives like euroCRIS and CASRAI address this by standardising research information definitions. In this paper, we present an approach to systematically develop and document not only definitions of research information, but also discussed alternatives and related arguments. With that we aim to support existing RI standardisation initatives with a flexible and scalable way of documenting and communicating the standardisation process in order to increase acceptance for the resulting definitions. Our contribution is threefold: Based on the widely used IBIS notation for argumentation modelling, we first introduce semantic rules for defining research information. Secondly, a transformation algorithm is provided to reduce the complexity of those argumentations – without the loss of information – and in turn improve readability of the diagrams. Thirdly, the semantic rules of the resulting less complex RIDAL notation are provided. The presented modelling notations are evaluated in the case setting of the standardisation project for research information of the German science system “Core Research Dataset”.