Article

Abstract

• In the 21^st century, digital data drive innovation and decision-making in nearly every field. However, little is known about the total size, characteristics, and sustainability of these data. In the scholarly sphere, it is widely suspected that there is a gap between the amount of valuable digital data that is produced and the amount that is effectively stewarded and made accessible. The Stewardship Gap Project (http://bit.ly/stewardshipgap) investigates characteristics of, and measures, the stewardship gap for sponsored scholarly activity in the United States. This paper presents a preliminary definition of the stewardship gap based on a review of relevant literature and investigates areas of the stewardship gap for which metrics have been developed and measurements made, and where work to measure the stewardship gap is yet to be done. The main findings presented are 1) there is not one stewardship gap but rather multiple "gaps" that contribute to whether data is responsibly stewarded; 2) there are relationships between the gaps that can be used to guide strategies for addressing the various stewardship gaps; and 3) there are imbalances in the types and depths of studies that have been conducted to measure the stewardship gap.

Creator

• Berman, Francine
• Gutmann, Myron
• York, Jeremy

Date Issued

• 2018-01-01

Academic Affiliation

• History

Journal Title

• Data Science Journal

Journal Volume

• 17

Subject

• digital curation
• digital preservation
• research data
• data stewardship
• data sustainability

Last Modified

• 2020-01-27

Identifier

• PubMed ID: 30962801

Resource Type

• Article

Rights Statement

• In Copyright

DOI

•  https://doi.org/10.5334/dsj-2018-019

ISSN

• 1683-1470

Language

• English [eng]

Relationships

Items

Thumbnail	Title	Date Uploaded	Visibility	Actions
	whatDoWeKnowAboutTheStewardshipGap.pdf	2019-12-05	Public	Download