Systematic mapping of open data studies: classification and trends from a technological perspective

The objective of this paper is to classify and analyse all research on open data performed in the scientific community from a technological viewpoint, providing a detailed exploration based on six key facets: publication venue, impact, subject, domain, life-cycle phases and type of research. This paper therefore provides a consolidated overview of the open data arena that allows readers to identify well-established topics, trends, and open research issues. Additionally, we provide an extensive qualitative discussion of the most interesting findings to pave the way for future research. Our first identification phase resulted in 893 relevant peer-reviewed articles, published between 2006 and 2019 in a wide variety of venues. Analysis of the results shows that open data research grew slowly from 2006 but increased significantly as from 2009. In 2019, research interest in open data from a technological perspective overall decreased. This fact could indicate that research is beginning to stabilise, i.e., the open data research hype is over, and the research field is reaching maturity. Main findings are (i) increasing effort in researching on Semantic Web technologies as a mechanism to publish and reuse linked open data, (ii) software systems are proposed to solve open data technical problems; and (iii) considering technological aspects of legislation and standardization is needed to widely introduce open data in society. Finally, we provide complementary insights regarding open data innovation projects, with special emphasis on publication (e.g., open data portals) and consumption (e.g., open data as business enabler) of open data. This work was supported by the Spanish Government (MINECO) under Project TIN2016-78103-C2-2-R and Project TIN2017-89069-R, and in part by the European Union Horizon 2020 Program through the ODINE Project under Grant 644683 and the Data Pitch Project under Grant 732506. The work of Jose-Norberto Mazón was supported by the “José Castillejo” research program from the Spanish Government (Programa Estatal de Promoción del Talento y su Empleabilidad en ICDCi, Subprograma de Movilidad, del Plan Estatal de Investigación Científica y Técnica y de Innovación 2013-2016) under Grant JC2015-00284.