What is data literacy?

What is it about?

Digital research data is a hot topic today. In this context, my viewpoint paper argues not only for wider recognition of data literacy but also for a more unified terminology. Its title is meant to speak for itself, or at least to reflect on the complexity of data-related issues. Data literacy is useful both to researchers, who need to become data literate science workers and for data librarians. Besides defining data literacy, based on several lists of competencies, my paper enumerates the potential fields of research data management, data curation and research data services that can be or have to be included in data literacy. Just to single out two issues, data literacy includes answers to the question about the possibility and the legitimate boundaries of open. Data quality is also a central concept if speaking about data literacy. The most closely related concept is information literacy, and the relationship between data literacy and academic literacy has many faces. There is a connection to statistical literacy, visual literacy and scientific literacy, as well. Data literacy also shares some features with media literacy, digital literacy and metaliteracy.

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Why is it important?

This paper is an attempt to provide an initial synthesis, thus it is more than a simple add-on to the existing body of knowledge about information literacy and other literacies in the light of research data and data literacy. I believe that adopting unified terminology is crucial, but understand that in an emerging field, like data literacy there is much more to say beyond that. I hope that I could lay down some of the foundations. Now I see that publications, related to data-intensive research appear with a great frequency, so I think that there is a room for me to continue writing about these issues in more detail and by achieving syntheses that incorporate newly published findings, and address both librarians and researchers.