RESEARCH DATA MANAGEMENT: A PRACTICE TO OPEN THE BLACK-BOX OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH

ABSTRACT

This paper discusses how the Open Science has constituted a new approach to the scientific knowledge generation process, based on the collaborative form that scientific production is being created and outreach. Traditional research outcomes such as papers, dissertations and theses, although available in open access, can be compared to a black box, under the Actor-Network Theory (ANT) perspective, since they are considered the final and closed result of a determined researcher's or a research group's analysis. This paper, mainly bibliographic, uses bibliographical and bibliometric research as methods of data treatment, followed by a systematic review of the literature. The aim is to highlight how the research data availability has agency within the science process and the scholarly communication. To this end, some of ANT's concepts are used to identify the role of research data within the network, built of human and nonhuman elements together. As results, this paper evidence how the research data availability provides new information resources, allowed mainly by the scientific activity feedback.

KEYWORDS:
Scientific data; Scientific information; Data - Life cycle; Actor-Network Theory