English abstract
The current study aims to explore the reality of the use by researchers or academics at the Sultan Qaboos University for Open Government Data, by investigating the level of awareness of this concept, the motives and areas of use, and then identifying the challenges that prevent the utilization of this use. In addition, it is concerned to study the impact of demographic factors (gender, qualification, years of experience) on both the motives and the areas of use.
The study adopted the Mixed Method approach to achieve its objectives. In addition, the study population included researchers (172 people) from the College of Arts and Social Sciences. The Data collected through two principal stages, quantitative data by distributing questionnaires to the study population; however, the response rate was 48% of the total number. In the second stage, qualitative data were collected through a purposive sample of 8 researchers with extensive experience in using Open government data in order to gain a deeper understanding of their use of open government data, and to know the challenges that prevent it from being used. The results of this phase analyzed by using a thematic analysis.
The findings indicate that there is an awareness of the concept of open government data by researchers in the College of Arts and Social.
Sciences. The results show that the motives of the researchers' use are the low cost of searching for data, the accessibility of getting it by making it available through one central portal, and their ability to invest in the available data to obtain new data. In addition, supporting the educational process and scientific research is one of the main reasons of using the open government data. However, incomplete data, slow network, and inability of sites to retrieve data are the most important challenges facing them.
The study recommended the National Center for Statistics and the data-producing institutions to encouraging governmental institutions to update the data and make them available through the National Statistics Center. Furthermore, it has advised them to pay attention to the presentation of data, and to the methods of making it available to the public sites of institutions. Moreover, many recommendations were given to Sultan Qaboos University that included raising awareness among researchers about the importance of the open government data and presenting their experiences in the scientific research, the educational process, and the community service; through holding workshops for those with expertise in the field and encouraging researchers to use and reproduce them.
