Stakeholder analysis: exploratory study into the requirements and uses for research activity data at the University of Oxford

This study was part of the Building the Research Information Infrastructure (BRII) project, which aims at enabling efficient sharing of research activity data across the University of Oxford by using semantic web technologies. The aim of the study was to examine the context in which research activities unfold at the University of Oxford. It identifies the project’s stakeholders, their interests, and the kinds of settings and situations under which the research information infrastructure (RII) and its services will be used. Data for this study were collected from interviews from a cross section of University groups, such as academic departments, administrative units and colleges. Data were categorised and analysed by using an interpretive-based content analysis method. Findings reveal a broad range of views with respect to uses of and needs for research activity data. These views are influenced by factors such as research field, type of job (academic, non-academic) and scope (does the job involve one field or department, or more: divisional level, University level and cross disciplinary?) The findings are grouped in four main categories resulting from the data analysis process: 1. Stakeholders: BRII stakeholders are everyone whose work is directly or indirectly related to research activities or who are interested in them; and who have a need to access and/or display research related information. This report identifies stakeholders according to their job function: researchers, administrative staff, and strategists and disseminators. The findings suggest that the information needs for these groups vary from more specialised and narrow in scope to general and wide (e.g. across disciplines.) The study also identifies a spectrum of stakeholders according to their research culture. The two extremes are named as extreme scientists and extreme humanists. Data showed that research culture influences the way information is generated and searched for (e.g. frequency of creation and maintenance, and selection of sources.) 2. Perspectives on research activity data: the study uncovers a set of factors which influence the way stakeholders perceive and use research activity data. These factors are classified in factors of influence which are the characteristics of research activity data projected into stakeholders’ work and responsibilities (e.g., trust, sensitivity and visibility of data); and factors of use which are the reasons for using research activity data (e.g., keeping up with the field). Additionally the study also shows how these factors are influenced by current technical systems whose functionality involves the use of research activity data. 3. Research activities: findings show a wide variety of kinds and shapes of research activities. These activities are influenced by the field and research culture in which they take place. Findings also suggest that the clarity in which these activities are described in data is influenced by the need for and/or existence of external funding (i.e., unfunded research activities do not appear in websites or internal systems.) Additionally, ways for organising research activities such as collaborations or research themes are described. 4. Current issues on data: these are the practicalities of generating and using research activity data. Respondents reported issues such as responsibility for producing and maintaining research activity data, duplication of data and data formats. Additionally a list of research activity objects was gathered from responses. These objects correspond to information that respondents use (from internal systems or the web) or to "things" they search for, do or know about, and which are important for their work. The findings of this study show that stakeholders can be very different from each other. Stakeholders’ characteristics and behaviour are not clear cut, but vary along more than one spectrum. Implications for the RII are therefore the need to account for variety across a spectrum of uses, such as different ways of searching (e.g., browsing, search box), provision of information at different depths (e.g., specialised, cross disciplinary overview, general overview), and the provision, where possible, of multiple views of the same research activity objects (e.g., projects by department, projects by researcher). Additionally this study uncovers the characteristics of the data that will be harvested by the RII. Research activity data are heterogeneous because they represent an heterogeneous universe of research activities. Therefore sources of data that will be harvested by the RII will be in no way consistent or compatible. Also, as research activities within the University change at a fast rate, so will the data that represent them. Therefore another implication for the RII is to evolve together with the data that it holds for example by providing services to access new categories of objects. Finally, the findings of this study provide evidence of: 1. The need for an organised and easy to access store of information about research in the University of Oxford which at the same time represents its diversity. 2. The need for trusted and comprehensive sources of information which are relevant for every research field in the University. 3. The need to search for information about people, activities and resources from across the University at administrative and academic levels across departments and disciplines. 4. The need to discover and gather information from different sources. 5. The need to reuse information for different purposes. 6. The need to improve research visibility by creating websites or other sources which provide overviews of research activity. 7. The need for tools to access information about research from a variety of perspectives and levels of aggregation. 8. The need to reduce inefficiencies. From this list it is evident that an infrastructure with the characteristics of the RII will fit perfectly within the academic and research processes taking place in the University of Oxford