Selection and appraisal of data

 

Selection, as well as appraisal of the data, is among the essential components in data curation.  Data selection is the process of identifying and choosing valuable data for preservation. It involved choosing the data that needed to be curated to support the goals of an institution of support business activities (Yoon et al, 2025). The selection process requires appraising the data and careful consideration of appraisal standards. 

Data appraisal entails assessing the data based on the value in records as well as physical considerations such as usability and cost (Freitas & Curry, 2016). Various key issues are taken into consideration to select and appraise data.

The first consideration for the selection of data is the selection of data in line with the goals and mission of the institution (Freitas & Curry, 2016). For instance, the Universities may curate the data to support research activities. The curated data may promote future reuse of the data by other researchers. This suggests the significance of research data in supporting the universities to meet their goals.

The second consideration of selecting and appraising data is the value of the data. The data value may be determined based on the significance of the data to support business activities as well as help in supporting evidence-based decision making. Some data may be curated with the aim of ensuring that it may, at some point, help to provide the managers in an institution with essential data to support decision-making.

The third consideration for selection as well as appraisal is legal or policy issues (Lee & Stvilia, 2017). This involves appraisal as well as selection of data that is in line with the institutional policies. The institution may develop a policy that would stipulate the type and nature of the data to be preserved. This may guide the curators in selecting and appraising appropriate data for curation. It further involves appraising and selecting the data that is in line with the laws. The data that may not comply with the legal as well as policy requirements may be left out.

The fourth consideration of the data for curation is completeness, as well as the authenticity of the data (Pouchard, 2015). The curators are required to ensure that they select the data that has all essential information, for meaningful reuse, as well as the credibility of the data.

In conclusion, it is evident that selection as well as appraisal of data is an essential component for ensuring that valuable data as well as essential data is secured for inclusion into the repository. This requires expertise as well as knowledge among the curators on the policies guiding selection, as well as appraisal of the data. The video provides the detailed description of data curation activities Click here.

 Figure 1: Data curation pipeline 

References

Freitas, A., & Curry, E. (2016). Big data curation. In New horizons for a data-driven economy: A roadmap for usage and exploitation of big data in Europe (pp. 87-118). Cham: Springer International Publishing.

Lee, D. J., & Stvilia, B. (2017). Practices of research data curation in institutional repositories: A qualitative view from repository staff. PloS one, 12(3), e0173987

Pouchard, L. (2015). Revisiting the data lifecycle with big data curation. International Journal of Digital Curation, 10(2), 176-192.

Yoon, A., Kim, J., & Donaldson, D. R. (2025). Big data curation framework: Curation actions and challenges. Journal of information Science, 51(1), 205-223.