Dataset Information

Scratchpads: a data-publishing framework to build, share and manage information on the diversity of life.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Natural History science is characterised by a single immense goal (to document, describe and synthesise all facets pertaining to the diversity of life) that can only be addressed through a seemingly infinite series of smaller studies. The discipline's failure to meaningfully connect these small studies with natural history's goal has made it hard to demonstrate the value of natural history to a wider scientific community. Digital technologies provide the means to bridge this gap.

Results

We describe the system architecture and template design of "Scratchpads", a data-publishing framework for groups of people to create their own social networks supporting natural history science. Scratchpads cater to the particular needs of individual research communities through a common database and system architecture. This is flexible and scalable enough to support multiple networks, each with its own choice of features, visual design, and constituent data. Our data model supports web services on standardised data elements that might be used by related initiatives such as GBIF and the Encyclopedia of Life. A Scratchpad allows users to organise data around user-defined or imported ontologies, including biological classifications. Automated semantic annotation and indexing is applied to all content, allowing users to navigate intuitively and curate diverse biological data, including content drawn from third party resources. A system of archiving citable pages allows stable referencing with unique identifiers and provides credit to contributors through normal citation processes.

Conclusion

Our framework http://scratchpads.eu/ currently serves more than 1,100 registered users across 100 sites, spanning academic, amateur and citizen-science audiences. These users have generated more than 130,000 nodes of content in the first two years of use. The template of our architecture may serve as a model to other research communities developing data publishing frameworks outside biodiversity research.

SUBMITTER: Smith VS

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2775152 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Scratchpads: a data-publishing framework to build, share and manage information on the diversity of life.

Smith Vincent S VS Rycroft Simon D SD Harman Kehan T KT Scott Ben B Roberts David D

BMC bioinformatics 20091110

<h4>Background</h4>Natural History science is characterised by a single immense goal (to document, describe and synthesise all facets pertaining to the diversity of life) that can only be addressed through a seemingly infinite series of smaller studies. The discipline's failure to meaningfully connect these small studies with natural history's goal has made it hard to demonstrate the value of natural history to a wider scientific community. Digital technologies provide the means to bridge this g ...[more]

PMID: 19900302

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Project description:BackgroundSharing data from wearable health and activity trackers (wearables) with others may improve the health and behavioral outcomes of wearable users by generating social support and improving their ability to manage their health. Investigating individual factors that influence US adults' willingness to share wearable data with different types of individuals may provide insights about the population subgroups that are most or least likely to benefit from wearable interventions. Specifically, it is necessary to identify digital health behaviors potentially associated with willingness to share wearable data given that the use of and engagement with various technologies may broadly influence web-based health information-sharing behaviors.ObjectiveThis study aims to identify sociodemographic, health, and digital health behavior correlates of US adults' willingness to share wearable data with health care providers and family or friends.MethodsData for the analytic sample (N=1300) were obtained from the 2019 Health Information National Trends Survey of the National Cancer Institute. Digital health behavior measures included frequency of wearable device use, use of smartphones or tablets to help communicate with providers, use of social networking sites to share health information, and participation in a web-based health community. Multivariable logistic regression analysis of weighted data examined the associations between digital health behaviors and willingness to share wearable device data, controlling for sociodemographics and health-related characteristics.ResultsMost US adults reported willingness to share wearable data with providers (81.86%) and with family or friends (69.51%). Those who reported higher health self-efficacy (odds ratio [OR] 1.97, 95% CI 1.11-3.51), higher level of trust in providers as a source of health information (OR 1.98, 95% CI 1.12-3.49), and higher level of physical activity (OR 2.00, 95% CI 1.21-3.31) had greater odds of willingness to share data with providers. In addition, those with a higher frequency of wearable use (OR 2.15, 95% CI 1.35-3.43) and those who reported use of smartphones or tablets to help communicate with providers (OR 1.99, 95% CI 1.09-3.63) had greater odds of willingness to share data with providers. Only higher level of physical activity was associated with greater odds of willingness to share wearable data with family or friends (OR 1.70, 95% CI 1.02-2.84). Sociodemographic factors were not significantly associated with willingness to share wearable data.ConclusionsThe findings of this study suggest that, among US adult wearable users, behavior-related factors, rather than sociodemographic characteristics, are key drivers of willingness to share health information obtained from wearables with others. Moreover, behavioral correlates of willingness to share wearable data are unique to the type of recipient (ie, providers vs family or friends). Future studies could use these findings to inform the development of interventions that aim to improve the use of patient-generated data from wearable devices in health care settings.

Dataset Information

Scratchpads: a data-publishing framework to build, share and manage information on the diversity of life.

Background

Results

Conclusion

Publications

Scratchpads: a data-publishing framework to build, share and manage information on the diversity of life.

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