High-stakes information: Deciding what constitutes quality in our products of communication

Abstract

As more information is digitized or born online, issues with assessment and preservation, in the forms of determining, reviewing, and describing it, increase. This is particularly true for what we might term high-stakes information, or information that if not carefully assessed or preserved can result in harmful consequences. With the premise that scholarly information is high-stakes information, the panel will take a tripartite approach to the consideration of what constitutes information quality in three distinct contexts: quality as an element of the research process, quality as a component of the scholarly communication process, and quality as a factor in the storage and long-term access of the product of research. The researchers on this panel will present reviews of the literature and their research findings. After the presentations, the panelists will raise a series of questions in order to foster discussion with the audience.