Direct, Orienting, and Scenic Paths: How Users Navigate Search in a Research Data Archive

Abstract

Social scientists increasingly share data so others can evaluate, replicate, and extend their research. To understand the process of data discovery as a precursor to data use, we study prospective users' interactions with archived data. We gathered data for 98,000 user sessions initiated at a large social science data archive, the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR). Our data reflect four years (2012-16) of users' interactions with archival resources, including a data catalog, study-level metadata, variables, and publications that cite nearly 10,000 datasets. We constructed a network of user interactions linking website landing (e.g., site entrances) to exit pages, from which we identified three types of paths that users take through the research data archive: direct, orienting, and scenic. We also interpreted points of failure (e.g., drop-offs) and recurring behaviors (e.g., sensemaking) that support or impede data discovery along search paths. We articulate strategies that users adopt as they navigate data search and suggest ways to enhance the accessibility of data, metadata, and the systems that organize each.