A pilot study for "Linked Open Research Data" (LORDpilot): a LOD-based Concept Registry for social science research data

研究数据的再利用是社会科学和经济学研究实践的一个组成部分。为了找到相关数据，研究人员需要足够的搜索设施。然而，由于社会科学概念层面的数据语义索引不一致或缺失，使得对研究数据进行全面的专题搜索变得更加困难，因为每个调查方案都使用自己的术语来描述其数据。因此，研究人员必须努力寻找相关或可比较的数据。从用户的角度来看，数据文档中的碎片化阻碍了有效的数据搜索，从而极大地限制了现有数据集的研究潜力。由于目前没有用于索引数据内容的语义模型，改进数据搜索的具体挑战在于建立基于概念的研究数据索引。研究基础设施需要一种对其研究数据进行统一语义索引的技术。洛德基础设施旨在通过建立社会学和经济学概念登记册来缩小这一差距，并遵循公平的原则，向科学界普遍提供这一概念登记册。这里提交的“LORDPilot”项目评估了社会科学和经济学概念登记册的实用性。作为第一步，该项目将为概念登记处开发一个基本数据模型。基于重要的数据集合(ALLBUS、SOEP、NACAP)，社会和经济科学概念将被识别并相互关联，以及与数据集合中的问题和变量相关联。将概念与符合SKOS的同义词表“辞典社会科学”(TheSoz)和“标准叙词表经济学”(STW)中的描述符链接起来，a)提高了在概念数据库中搜索的效率，b)将概念词汇表直接集成到链接的开放数据(LOD)云中。使用建模语言UML(统一建模语言)创建数据模型，并以所谓的RDF三元组的形式创建和管理概念之间的链接。为了根据数据中使用的理论结构界定相关概念，将采用智力分析和比较以及对测量仪器和数据相关出版物的研究。最初的重点是三个调查方案中内容重叠的变量和问题，因为它们构成了与概念相互联系的坚实基础。

The re-use of research data is an integral part of research practice in the social and economic sciences. To find relevant data, researchers need adequate search facilities. However, a comprehensive, thematic search for research data is made more difficult by inconsistent or missing semantic indexing of data at the level of social science concepts because each survey programme uses its own terminology to describe its data. Consequently, researchers have to make great efforts to find relevant or comparable data.From the user's perspective, the fragmentation in data documentation impedes effective data searches and thus significantly limits the research potential of existing data collections. Because there is currently no semantic model for indexing the data content, the specific challenge for improving data search lies in establishing a concept-based indexing of research data. Research infrastructures need a technology for the harmonized semantic indexing of their research data. The LORD infrastructure aims at closing this gap by developing a registry of sociological and economic concepts and, following the FAIR principles, making this concept registry generally available for the scientific community.The ‘LORDpilot’ project submitted here evaluates the practicability of a Concept Registry for the social and economic sciences. As a first step, the project will develop a basic data model for the Concept Registry. Based on important data collections (ALLBUS, SOEP, Nacaps), social and economic science concepts will be identified and interlinked with each other as well as with the questions and variables in the data collections.For the technical implementation, we use standards of the Semantic Web. Linking the concepts with descriptors from the SKOS-compliant thesauri "Thesaurus Social Sciences" (TheSoz) and "Standard Thesaurus Economics" (STW) a) enhances the effectivity of searches in the concept database and b) directly integrates the concept vocabulary into the Linked Open Data (LOD) cloud. The modelling language UML (United Modeling Language) is used to create the data model, and the links between concepts are created and managed in the form of so-called RDF triples. To define relevant concepts based on theoretical constructs used in the data, intellectual analysis and comparison as well as research on measurement instruments and data related publications will be employed. The initial focus is on variables and questions with overlapping content in the three survey programmes, as they form a sound basis for the cross-linking with concepts.