1. Working with your archive organization Broadening your user community
Modules should be 3-7 minutes long
Robert R. Downs, PhD
Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC)
Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN)
Columbia University
Version 1.0
Review Date
Copyright 2012 Robert R. Downs.

2. Overview
The user community that could use particular data products or services might not be aware of your data product or service
Some individuals might not be aware of the potential for using your data to address their particular needs
Others might be aware of a data product or service and may believe that it could serve their needs, but they might not have the capabilities or tools to use the data
Efforts to broaden your user community could result in increased awareness of the data and its potential uses by new communities or by those who have obtained new capabilities or tools for using the data product or service

3. Relevance to Data Management
Broadening your user community could increase the use of the data product or service
Efforts to broaden your user community could improve discovery and awareness of the data and foster use of the data by new and future communities of users
Improvements in tools and capabilities to enable new users and uses of your data could enhance the accessibility, understandability, and usability of the data
Broadening the user community for data could increase recognition of the data as a valuable resource and result in the availability of additional resources for managing and disseminating that data

4. Methods for broadening your user community
Increase awareness of data product or service
Advertise your data and publish articles about its use
Improve discoverability of your data through inclusion in data catalogs
Promote new and novel uses of your data
Describe new uses of the data and feature articles about their use
Improve capabilities for using your data
Provide guidance, instruction, and documentation on using the data
Improve rights for using the data and remove any restrictions on use
Offer new tools and services for using your data
Develop easy-to-use tools that enable beginners to use your data
Create tools and services that foster analysis of your data
Convert data to formats that facilitate use by common tools
Enable integration of your data with other data products and services

5. Develop plan to broaden your user community
Determine audience and track data usage and impact
Journal articles, books, reports, gray literature, popular media
Compare data uses with expectations for use of the data
Research, education, policy-making, planning, navigating
Compare data users served with expectations
Disciplines and sub-disciplines of journals where data are cited
Communities (scientists, educators, students, decision-makers)
National and international (languages)
Identify gaps as opportunities for expansion
Segments of community not aware of the data or its potential to meet their needs
Tools or services needed to enable segments of community to use the data
Develop plan to address opportunities to broaden your user community
Promotional activities or events
Discovery opportunities (additional catalogs, search engine optimization)
New data products (subsets, maps, integrated data, translations, lessons)
New data services (simple analytical tools, advanced tools, visualization capabilities)
Identify criteria to measure success for each element of plan

6. Continually broaden your user community
Execute plan for expanding user community.
Compare results of each expansion activity with success criteria.
Correct or improve unsuccessful expansion activities.
Track data usage and impact over time to identify improvement.
Perform gap analysis to identify opportunities for expansion.
Develop plans for continued expansion based on gap analysis.
Periodically repeat user community expansion process.

7. References and Resources
Chen, R. S. and Downs, R. R Evaluating the Use and Impact of Scientific Data. Assessing The Usage and Value of Scholarly and Scientific Output: An Overview of Traditional and Emerging Metrics. Available online at
Downs, R. R Working with Your Archive Organization. Data Management 101 for the Earth Scientist. American Geophysical Union Workshop. Available online at
Downs, R. R., Schumacher, J., Chen, R. S., Lenhardt, W. C. (2008) Assessing the Scientific Benefits of Interdisciplinary Use of Social Science Data through Citation Analysis. International Association for Social Science Information Services & Technology (IASSIST) Conference, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA. Available online at

8. Other Relevant Modules
Tracking data usage
Determining your audience
Metadata for discovery
Access mechanisms
Rights