Measuring the Value of Data

Measuring  the value of data products and services offers capabilities for stakeholders in the Earth, space, and social sciences to demonstrate how they are contributing to society. These stakeholders might include sponsors, mission operators, instrument and processing teams, and data distributors, such as digital repositories, scientific data centers, archives, and others. Unlike commercial entities, where return on investment (ROI) or profits may be used to measure value, contributions to the sciences are often conducted by non-profit organizations, including government, research, and educational institutions. Various methodologies can be utilized to demonstrate the value and document the benefits and impact of scientific data. Among other approaches, data distributors and other science stakeholders may measure impact by counts of data citations that appear in publications, users served, data products distributed, or mentions in the news or social media. Presentations in this session describe ways in which science stakeholders, including scientific data distributors, are measuring impact and assessing the value of data.

Speakers

• Robert R. Downs, CIESIN, Columbia University. Measuring the Interdisciplinary Value of SEDAC Data
• Yusuke Kuwayama, Resources for the Future. Microeconomic Approaches for Quantifying the Value of Remotely Sensed Information
• Robert Reining, The Mitre Corporation. Constructing NOAA's Value Tree: Representing Relationships between NOAA’s Organization, Services, and Observing Systems
• Kyle Hundman, JPL, Measuring and Predicting Data Value Using Scientific Literature
• Lawrence Friedl, NASA Applied Sciences Program, led and moderated the discussion.