Research Data Provenance IG

Tracking provenance for research data is vital to science and scholarship, providing answers to common questions researchers pose when sharing and exchanging data: Where did it come from? Who modified it? Is this copy the same as the copy I deposited? In what way is it the same? How do I resolve discrepancies or anomalies?

This group focuses on the comparison and evaluation of models for data provenance. It is concerned with questions of data origins, maintenance of identity through the data lifecycle, and how we account for data modification. Objectives of this group include: recommending general and expressive frameworks for documenting research data transactions proposing syntheses of complementary provenance views, and relating data provenance to problems of scientific equivalence and the assessment of data quality.

The Research Data Provenance group anticipates potential intersections with the Data Citation, Data Foundation and Terminology, and Metadata Standards working groups as well as the Data in Context interest group.