POLICY TRANSLATION IN DATA MANAGEMENT: COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF GLOBAL STANDARDS AND LOCAL ADAPTATIONS
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.35631/JISTM.1143014Keywords:
Administrative Science, Data Governance, Information Management, Metadata Standards, Policy TranslationAbstract
International open data frameworks rely heavily on creating a unified metadata protocol for seamless national/institutional repository interoperability. Nonetheless, their top-down global applicability is regularly broken down by the reality of multiple local administrative scenarios. This paper examines how localized practices are translated from shared metadata rules and rigorously compares data catalog deployments. Taking the Data Catalog Vocabulary Application Profile (DCAT-AP) that is part of the European open data infrastructure as our reference model, we analyzed about 450,000 metadata records derived from 84 different regional and national catalogs. Our empirical study reveals three main patterns of operation, namely ‘strict compliance’, ‘contextual adaptation’, or ‘systemic workaround’. The data shows significant regional differences: Western catalogs rely heavily on structural workarounds (40%), Northern European hubs achieve a 45% compliance rate, while Eastern catalogues opt for structural workarounds with 15%. Overall, this research suggests that efforts to achieve true cross-border data interoperability should be more context-oriented and nuanced – not one-size-fits-all or compliance-obsessed.
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