A Qualitative Study of Researchers Perspective on the Use and Risks of Open Government Data

  • Emigawaty Emigawaty Universitas AMIKOM Yogyakarta, Indonesia
  • Dinda Sukmaningrum Universitas AMIKOM Yogyakarta, Indonesia
  • Wiji Nurastuti Universitas AMIKOM Yogyakarta, Indonesia
DOI: 10.51519/journalisi.v7i2.1122
Keywords: Risk, Data Openness, Data Portal, Government, Researchers

Abstract

Open government data has the potential to improve transparency, accountability, public participation, business innovation, and research quality. However, this openness also poses various opportunities for losses or even risks, especially related to low data quality, personal data security issues, data translation errors, and misuse of information. This study aims to review the potential risks of data openness on government data portals from the perspective of researchers as one of the important actors who use data. Using qualitative method with structured interviews, this study involved five potential researchers who actively used open data between May and August 2023. The results of the interviews showed that high data quality, such as accuracy, completeness, and currency, can increase researchers' trust in the data. At the same time, obstacles in accessibility and bureaucracy or data administration requirements can slow down the research process or stages. Security and privacy issues are also important parameters, with strict security policies and good audit processes can reduce the risk of data misuse. Data openness and transparency play a major role in increasing the use of data for public policy and evidence-based research. In addition, data standardization is essential to ensure the efficiency of data use by researchers. This study concludes that to optimize the benefits of data openness, there needs to be proper and measurable management in order to consider data quality, accessibility, security, and standardization.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

R. Matheus, M. Janssen, and T. Janowski, “Design principles for creating digital transparency in government,” Gov. Inf. Q., vol. 38, no. 1, Jan. 2021, doi: 10.1016/j.giq.2020.101550.

M. Lněnička et al., “Enhancing transparency through open government data: the case of data portals and their features and capabilities,” Online Inf. Rev., vol. 45, no. 6, pp. 1021–1038, Oct. 2021, doi: 10.1108/OIR-05-2020-0204.

S. de Juana-Espinosa and S. Luján-Mora, “Open government data portals in the European Union: A dataset from 2015 to 2017,” Data Brief, vol. 29, p. 105156, Apr. 2020, doi: 10.1016/j.dib.2020.105156.

R. H. Klein, D. B. Klein, and E. M. Luciano, “Open Government Data: Concepts, Approaches and Dimensions Over Time,” Rev. Econ. Gestão, vol. 18, no. 49, pp. 4–24, Aug. 2018, doi: 10.5752/P.1984-6606.2018v18n49p4-24.

A. Nikiforova and K. McBride, “Open government data portal usability: A user-centred usability analysis of 41 open government data portals,” Telemat. Inform., vol. 58, p. 101539, May 2021, doi: 10.1016/j.tele.2020.101539.

A. Luthfi, M. Janssen, and J. Crompvoets, “A causal explanatory model of Bayesian-belief networks for analysing the risks of opening data,” in BMSD 2018, vol. 319, pp. 289–297, 2018, doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-94214-8_20.

R. Barcellos, F. Bernardini, and J. Viterbo, “Towards defining data interpretability in open data portals: Challenges and research opportunities,” Inf. Syst., vol. 106, p. 101961, May 2022, doi: 10.1016/j.is.2021.101961.

Y. Charalabidis et al., The World of Open Data, vol. 28. Cham: Springer, 2018, doi: 10.1007/978-3-319-90850-2.

E. Ruijer et al., “Connecting societal issues, users and data: Scenario-based design of open data platforms,” Gov. Inf. Q., vol. 34, no. 3, pp. 470–480, Sep. 2017, doi: 10.1016/j.giq.2017.06.003.

S. Han, K. Han, and S. Zhang, “A data sharing protocol to minimize security and privacy risks of cloud storage in big data era,” IEEE Access, vol. 7, pp. 60290–60298, 2019, doi: 10.1109/ACCESS.2019.2914784.

A. Luthfi and M. Janssen, “Open data for evidence-based decision-making: Data-driven government resulting in uncertainty and polarization,” Int. J. Adv. Sci. Eng. Inf. Technol., vol. 9, no. 3, pp. 1071–1078, 2019.

A. Francey and T. Mettler, “The effects of open government data: Some stylised facts,” Inf. Polity, vol. 26, no. 3, pp. 273–288, Aug. 2021, doi: 10.3233/IP-200281.

I. Safarov, A. Meijer, and S. Grimmelikhuijsen, “Utilization of open government data: A systematic literature review of types, conditions, effects and users,” Inf. Polity, vol. 22, no. 1, pp. 1–24, May 2017, doi: 10.3233/IP-160012.

J.-S. Lee and S.-P. Jun, “Privacy-preserving data mining for open government data from heterogeneous sources,” Gov. Inf. Q., vol. 38, no. 1, p. 101544, Jan. 2021, doi: 10.1016/j.giq.2020.101544.

C. Boudreau, “Reuse of open data in Quebec: From economic development to government transparency,” Int. Rev. Adm. Sci., vol. 87, no. 4, pp. 855–869, Dec. 2021, doi: 10.1177/0020852319884628.

A. Luthfi and M. Janssen, “A stakeholders taxonomy for open government data decision-making,” in BMSD 2021, 2021.

F. Gonzalez-Zapata and R. Heeks, “The multiple meanings of open government data: Understanding different stakeholders and their perspectives,” Gov. Inf. Q., vol. 32, no. 4, pp. 441–452, Oct. 2015, doi: 10.1016/j.giq.2015.09.001.

E. Kalampokis, A. Karamanou, and K. Tarabanis, “Applying explainable artificial intelligence techniques on linked open government data,” in Proc. 2021, pp. 247–258, doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-84789-0_18.

E. Oviedo, J. N. Mazon, and J. J. Zubcoff, “Quality and maturity model for open data portals,” in 2015 Latin American Computing Conference (CLEI), IEEE, Oct. 2015, pp. 1–7, doi: 10.1109/CLEI.2015.7360011.

M. Martin, M. Kaltenböck, and S. Auer, “The open government data stakeholder survey,” in 6th Open Knowledge Conference, 2011.

E. Ruijer and A. Meijer, “Open government data as an innovation process: Lessons from a living lab experiment,” Public Perform. Manag. Rev., vol. 43, no. 3, pp. 613–635, May 2020, doi: 10.1080/15309576.2019.1568884.

R. C. Joshi and B. B. Gupta, Eds., Security, Privacy, and Forensics Issues in Big Data. IGI Global, 2019.

Published
2025-06-30
Abstract views: 53 times
Download PDF: 25 times
How to Cite
Emigawaty, E., Sukmaningrum, D., & Nurastuti, W. (2025). A Qualitative Study of Researchers Perspective on the Use and Risks of Open Government Data. Journal of Information Systems and Informatics, 7(2), 1627-1642. https://doi.org/10.51519/journalisi.v7i2.1122
Issue
Vol 7 No 2 (2025): June
Section
Articles

Copyright (c) 2025 Journal of Information Systems and Informatics

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

  1. I certify that I have read, understand and agreed to the Journal of Information Systems and Informatics (Journal-ISI) submission guidelines, policies and submission declaration. Submission already using the provided template.
  2. I certify that all authors have approved the publication of this and there is no conflict of interest.
  3. I confirm that the manuscript is the authors' original work and the manuscript has not received prior publication and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere and has not been previously published.
  4. I confirm that all authors listed on the title page have contributed significantly to the work, have read the manuscript, attest to the validity and legitimacy of the data and its interpretation, and agree to its submission.
  5. I confirm that the paper now submitted is not copied or plagiarized version of some other published work.
  6. I declare that I shall not submit the paper for publication in any other Journal or Magazine till the decision is made by journal editors.
  7. If the paper is finally accepted by the journal for publication, I confirm that I will either publish the paper immediately or withdraw it according to withdrawal policies
  8. I Agree that the paper published by this journal, I transfer copyright or assign exclusive rights to the publisher (including commercial rights)