The Development of a Functional Data Model for Democratizing our Data applications

Abstract

The development of a functional data model is essential for effective data management and analysis. In the Democratizing our Data project (Lane, 2021), the development of the model - as in most technical projects - went through several stages of development. The first was simply understanding what types of data could be generated from the application of the ML tools to the Scopus corpus.

The overall development of the model is guided by a needs analysis that uses a list of questions that the project should address.

From the starting point of the questions, we formulate a data strategy that serves the identification of datasets and analysis to address the questions. The data strategy identifies what attributes of potential data sources and process are important.

Once the data strategy is established, we develop the data model that serves in the application and project process, as well as define means to disseminate the findings and engage the scientific community in the evaluation.

Keywords: data model, functional design