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Methodology

Overview

This overview is intended for both researchers and reviewers involved in generating and validating the Barometer's survey data, as well as a reference for those seeking to understand the overall approach of the Barometer and the data that the study will produce.

As the Global Data Barometer investigates data policies and practices across the data spectrum, particularly those that can be influenced by government action, before moving forward into the modules and indicators, it is important to be familiar with foundation concepts behind the Barometer: the Data Spectrum, the Open Data Barometer, and the Open Data Charter Principles.

Design Principles

The structure of the Barometer - the modules, indicators, and scoring - have been developed to respond to a specific set of design principles.

Designing for different government structures

While some countries are responsible for setting policy nationally, many countries operate within federal systems that often mean that aspects of data policy, availability, and use are shaped by sub-national governments. Indicators have been designed to accommodate this reality. In federal systems, researchers are able to provide a detailed assessment for a single sub-national context and indicate whether this is representative or not of other sub-national contexts.

Inclusion and universality

The highest scores in the Barometer are achieved when governance, capability, availability, and use can be shown to be 'universal' - when everyone in the country is covered by, or protected by, governance rules, everyone has access to capabilities or the development of capabilities, everyone in the country has access to meaningful data, and data use has impact for the public good across the country.

Bright spots design

The Barometer has adopted a 'bright spots' design approach with the intention of collecting data on leading examples of good practice, even if the practice is not yet universal within a country.

Structure & Process

The Barometer is a multi-dimensional index, comprised of components and sub-components, which are, in turn, built from composite indicators that combine primary and secondary data. The goal is to develop an overall comparative assessment of the extent to which countries (or regions) govern and use data for the public good; therefore, the Barometer breaks down the concept of data for the public good into various individual components and sub-components, each assessed separately, and then, the results are aggregated into an overall score.

The Global Data Barometer is based around four pillars or foundational areas of assessment:

  • Data governance is concerned with whether there are rules, processes, and institutions in place to make data available for the public good, and to safeguard that data against misuse. Governance indicators generally look at the legal and policy framework of the country that supports data ecosystems.
  • Data capability is concerned with whether the country has the means, connectivity, skills, and institutional capacity to create, share, and use data for the public good. The majority of capability indicators will be drawn from secondary data, but additional capability questions are included in the survey.
  • Data availability is the largest section of the primary survey and explores whether certain categories of data are available, shared, and of adequate quality to allow reuse for the public good.
  • Data use and impact is concerned with finding evidence of particular uses of data and their impact in the country.

Global Data Barometer Structure: Governance, Capability, Availability, Use & Impact

The study is also organised through a number of core, thematic, and snapshot modules that, in addition to assessing the overarching country context, look at the interaction of governance, capability, availability, and use in specific domains, such as political integrity, climate action, and land. Modules vary in size, reflecting the pilot nature of the GDB as we seek to explore both the depth and breadth of assessing data for the public good in core, thematic, and snapshot modules.

Finally, there are a number of cross-cutting issues addressed in the Barometer, which may be featured within sub-questions for a number of indicators. These include: sustainable development; open data, data for development; inclusion, gender, and diversity; as well emerging AI practices.

A note on the government survey

In order to augment the results of the expert survey and support a greater depth of analysis, a government survey is also being developed for the pilot edition of the Barometer. Governments will be invited to provide evidence directly that a researcher might not find on their own. Reviewers will be asked to determine the applicability of government contributions in terms of updating indicator assessments completed by researchers.

This approach is designed (a) to allow the expert survey and government survey to run in parallel; and (b) it allows researchers to move forward with their assessments, while avoiding potential disparities in quality and depth of the survey responses from governments.