Open data quality measurement framework: Definition and application to Open Government Data

• We provide a metric-based evaluation framework to assess the quality of Open Government Data (OGD).
• We verify the suitability of the framework by applying it to OGD datasets.
• We observed that OGD from centralized data release resulted in better quality than the decentralized one.
• Most common problems identified by the metrics were lack of metadata, incomplete data, lack of information on data updates.
• We provide references to tools and processes, to improve weaknesses in specific quality characteristics.

The diffusion of Open Government Data (OGD) in recent years kept a very fast pace. However, evidence from practitioners shows that disclosing data without proper quality control may jeopardize dataset reuse and negatively affect civic participation. Current approaches to the problem in literature lack a comprehensive theoretical framework. Moreover, most of the evaluations concentrate on open data platforms, rather than on datasets.In this work, we address these two limitations and set up a framework of indicators to measure the quality of Open Government Data on a series of data quality dimensions at most granular level of measurement. We validated the evaluation framework by applying it to compare two cases of Italian OGD datasets: an internationally recognized good example of OGD, with centralized disclosure and extensive data quality controls, and samples of OGD from decentralized data disclosure (municipality level), with no possibility of extensive quality controls as in the former case, hence with supposed lower quality.Starting from measurements based on the quality framework, we were able to verify the difference in quality: the measures showed a few common acquired good practices and weaknesses, and a set of discriminating factors that pertain to the type of datasets and the overall approach. On the basis of this evaluation, we also provided technical and policy guidelines to overcome the weaknesses observed in the decentralized release policy, addressing specific quality aspects.