gesis dr. maximilian stempfhuber head of research and development social science information centre,...

GESIS

Dr. Maximilian StempfhuberHead of Research and Development

Social Science Information Centre, Bonn, Germany

How to deal with heterogeneity when building the CRIS of tomorrow?

Keep the Best – Forget the Rest?

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GESIS: Short Introduction

German Social Science Infrastructure Services Centre for Survey Research and Methodology

(ZUMA), Mannheim Central Archive for Empirical Social Research,

University of Cologne (ZA) Social Science Information Centre, Bonn (IZ)

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GESIS: Mission Statement

GESIS...

... provides services in support of social science research including the development and supply of databases with information on social science literature and research activities as well as the archiving and provision of survey data from social research

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IZ: Short Introduction

The Social Science Information Centre (IZ) Builds databases on literature, research projects and institutes Distributes information via portals, hosts, CD-ROM, printed publications and personalized search services Does research in information technology, information retrieval and UI design

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Agenda

Heterogeneity – The Users Heterogeneity – The Domains Heterogeneity – The Data Heterogeneity – The Data Providers Standards – A Solution? We Need a Model! Examples for Current Activities Conclusion

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Heterogeneity – The Users (1)

Who will use a CRIS? Researchers Teachers and scholars Decision makers (local, national, EU, …) Funding agencies Companies Journalists …

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Are all users the same?

Domain skills

Generalskills

Researcher?

Company?

Scholar?

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Users evolve: From novices to domain experts From casual users to power users …Users switch: Between simple questions and complex problems Between different search strategies …And users communicate

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What do we have to provide? Adequate support for all user groups “Data in context” becomes information Dynamic, adaptive and adaptable systems All the functions – but only when needed Intelligent and integrated systems…

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Heterogeneity – The Domains

Are all domains the same? Traditions (scientific process) Use of information technology Sharing of knowledge and data (raw data, scientific discourse, pre-print serves, electronic vs. printed publications) Scientific output (quantity) Perception by the public “Valuable” (who will request / pay for their output)…

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Heterogeneity – The Data (1)

Users need different data Reference databases Full text documents / online ordering Project information Raw data (surveys, timeseries data, specimen, ...) People, teams, institutes, networks ...

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Heterogeneity – The Data (2)

Even the same data can be different: Languages (Meta-)Data structures Content analysis and indexing Storage systems Retrieval models User interfaces Free vs. liable for costs / public vs. scientific use ...

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Heterogeneity – The Data Providers (1)

Who are they? Authors Research institutes Information centres and libraries Funding agencies Decision makers (local, national, EU, …)...

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Do they all have the same goals? Recognition by the community Administration of current research Reports to boards / proof of excellence Services to the community Strategic planning ...

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How do they differ? Willing to document research and results Providing metadata and/or “real” data Providing direct access Providing different media and formats Commercial vs. non-commercial Willing to cooperate ...

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Standards – A Solution? (1)

Are standards really feasible? A single schema for every data type? A single indexing language for all domains? A single architecture for information systems? A single communication protocol? A single authentication authority? A single …?

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Where are the problems? Long time for defining standards Investments in other (own) standards Every day a new “standard” It’s not “my” standard! Where is my competitive edge? Are Dublin Core and OAI really useful? Do I have the resources to support the standard? Do I have to change my IT? Will I lose some information forever?

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Where do standards help? Communication Date exchange Creating new resources Connecting resources (local to global) Common user experience Universal access

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But still they are just single standards!

How do we choose the best standard?

Will everyone switch to the standard?

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We Need A Model! (1)

No! We need...

... a model to connect them!

© IBM

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We Need A Model! (2)

Models... For the user experience To cope with structural heterogeneity To cope with semantic heterogeneity To identify and connect objects For connecting distributed systems For making cooperation possible

... based on common standards!

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Examples for Current Activities

Current activities dealing with heterogeneity: MORESS infoconnex (www.infoconnex.de) Vascoda (www.vascoda.de)

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Cooperation in MORESS (1)

Mapping of Research in European Social Sciences and Humanities 25 countries participating Project leader: European University Association (EUA) April 2003 – May 2005 Cataloguing country-specific information sources (e. g. databases) Thematic (relevant to FP6) mapping of research teams and experts

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Organizational infrastructure: Central catalogue of information sources, fed by project partners Common metadata model Common classification Open software platform (DBClear), also for building new information sources Live linking to information sources

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Results: Catalogue accessible by the public New information collections Meta-Search over selected sources Map of European research on a selected FP6 topic Platform for future activities towards the ERA

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Multidisciplinarity in infoconnex (1)

Information Network “Education – Social Sciences – Psychology” Multidisciplinary information portal Reference databases (phase 1) Linking to full text (e.g. journal articles) Pay-per-View / One-Stop-Shop for commercial content Domain-specific and cross-domain search

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Treating heterogeneity of database structures and indexing Novel user interfaces, e. g. for cross- database searches Additional content: library catalogues, clearinghouses, research projects, institutes, scholarly materials, … (phase 2) Linking of database objects (phase 2)

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Education SocialSciences

Psychology

User‘s query

User interface layer

Query processing

Heterogeneity

Query mapping

standard

specific

Result presentation

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Education

SocialSciences

Psychology

SWD

Mapping ofvocabularies

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Cross-database search

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Results from multiple databases

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Database-specific result presentation

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Multidisciplinarity in Vascoda (1)

German portal for scientific information Combining „Information Networks“ and „Virtual Libraries“ initiatives Reference databases with full text linking and online ordering + clearinghouses No authentication or billing Integrated search, but domain-specific results Cluster and cross-domain searches

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Integration of research projects, data and other materials planned No treatment of heterogeneity right now! How can quality of results be guaranteed with multidisciplinary databases (e.g. library catalogues)?

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Current Research: Heterogeneity / IR

Stepwise query refinement with cross-concordances Statistical transfers of query terms Dynamic user interfaces for cross- database searches Merging and ranking of results

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Current Research: Novel UIs

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Conclusion

To build a model for the CRIS of tomorrow should be the

primary task of

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The End

Thank you for your attention!

Maximilian Stempfhuber

[email protected]

gesis dr. maximilian stempfhuber head of research and development social science information centre,...

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