Date: 
24 February 2021

 

A new report D7.6 Resources for Marketplace content description identifies a common knowledge path and use of vocabularies in SSH research communities.

Written for academic researchers, universities and research institutes and also for industry professionals who operate, integrate, and manage vocabulary platforms, such as librarians, information specialists, and knowledge management engineers, the report is based on a survey which aimed to identify which vocabularies are the most commonly used among researchers in order to inform and improve the ongoing development of the SSH Open Marketplace.

Conducting research in the Social Science and Humanities sector may sometimes be overwhelming since research methods and work practices in this field are narrow and diverse. Thus, vocabularies used to describe, discover, and access research content, which are many and varied, may sometimes lead to ambiguity. As such the purpose of the report is to:

  • provide an analysis on the use of SSH vocabularies within the dedicated research community
  • support the creation of SSH Open Marketplace by attempting to discover if some vocabularies were more widely employed than others
  • constitute a complementary study in the light of other SSHOC involved partners and Horizon 2020 projects to understand SSH researchers’ use of vocabularies

 

Survey on Vocabulary Use in SSH Research

The analysis is based on 330 answers collected through a survey conducted within the SSHOC project “Governance: Population, Curation & Sustainability of the SSH Open Marketplace”. In this survey, SSH researchers could contribute to the ongoing creation of the Open Marketplace by providing information on their use of vocabularies. The survey was carried out among SSH research communities in Europe between February and May 2020 and included 14 questions regarding vocabulary usage and work practices.

The survey highlighted that SSH researchers’ uses of vocabularies are extremely heterogeneous. In fact, it was found that the vocabularies utilized by researchers are often very specialised or discipline-oriented, which limits their potential for reuse over the SSH community and make it difficult to identify general descriptions suitable among all fields of research. Respondents confirmed the use of vocabularies planned to be used in the SSH Open Marketplace, as described in “D7.1 System Specification - SSH Open Marketplace”.

Next Steps

Further studies and work could be carried to better understand researchers’ understanding of the concept of vocabulary and to identify other relevant vocabularies to be used on the platform. Furthermore, an awareness communication activity could be undertaken to harmonise the SSH research understanding of what a vocabulary properly represents.

 

Download D7.6 Resources for Marketplace content description

 

 

Join us at ICTeSSH 2021 

On June 28 2021 SSHOC hosts the hands-on workshop “SSHOC Vocabulary Initiative - What users want”