Open access to data on higher education and science: A case study of the RAD-on platform in Poland

Abstract

In the era of data-driven policies, there is a need to ensure that decision-makers and citizens alike have easy access to the highest quality data. In the creation of RAD-on: an information system comprising reports, analyses, and data on science and higher education in Poland, we have attempted to overcome barriers to decision-making in the field of research and innovation. The system presents open government data (OGD) on subjects that are relevant to science and innovation policy, including: the publication patterns of scientists and academics in Poland; graduates from Polish universities and their incomes; and data on research projects conducted in Poland and financed using national and international funds. RAD-on aims to ensure transparency and participation through interaction with its users and a methodologically coherent approach to data. In this article, we describe the complex architecture of the RAD-on system, and present its reporting capabilities. While doing so, we focus on the development process, which accounted for recent studies on the usability of open data. We address the problem of users’ understanding of the possibilities of the data platform, and outline our efforts to mitigate the risk of data being wrongly interpreted and used in decision-making processes.