Evaluation of the PsyCuraDat-Specification 2.0: Study description of the data referring to the second user study conducted in the BMBF-funded project PsyCuraDat

Abstract

Previous findings regarding the usability of the contextual specification of the PsyCuraDat standard (Blask, Müller, Arnold, & Kraffert, 2020) revealed that the specification lacked not only further documentation content (e.g. data preparation and analysis scripts), but also a comprehensible presentation of the underlying concept. To this end, researchers in the present user study were provided with a data preparation and analysis script as well as a short manual describing the functional properties of the documentation levels and their constituting elements. Within the user study the documentation standard was applied to an exemplary dataset. In order to test whether the pieces of information presented within the dataset documentation are useful in conveying the relevant procedural knowledge associated with a dataset, participants were asked to answer questions about the dataset with the help of the provided documentation. Additionally, they were interviewed on the perceived usefulness of the standard and its three documentation levels. Results of the user study indicate that the contextual as well as the formal specification of the standard need further improvement.