PLO 1. Applying Professional Ethics in Research Data Management

Course: LIBR 559S: Research Data Management Artifact: RDM Final Project Submission – Geospatial Data (group project) My role: Group member; contributed to the research, synthesis, and presentation of issues related to geospatial data formats, metadata, deposit practices, access, and ethical considerations.

This artifact reflects my achievement in PLO 1, especially its professional ethics dimension: drawing upon ethical principles to guide information practice. The project focused on geospatial data, a form of research data that combines location, attribute, and temporal information and is often difficult to manage because it exists in multiple formats, file structures, and metadata systems. While the project addressed technical topics such as raster and vector data, metadata standards, README guidance, file packaging, and repository deposit practices, what stayed with me most was the ethical responsibility involved in managing data that can reveal precise locations and, in some cases, expose individuals or communities to harm. PLO 1 asks students to use professional ethics and principles of equity and inclusion to guide practice, and this project helped me understand how those responsibilities emerge in concrete data decisions rather than only in abstract discussion. A major ethical issue in this project was privacy. Our presentation noted that geospatial data can be more invasive than many other information technologies because precise location data may unintentionally identify individuals or communities. We also emphasized that sensitive datasets involving crime, health, HIV rates, or immigration patterns require careful handling. This made me think more seriously about the tension between openness and protection. In research data management, it is often valuable to improve discoverability, interoperability, and reuse, but those goals cannot be treated as universally good in every context. Ethical stewardship means asking when data should be shared, how much detail should be exposed, what documentation is necessary, and whether repository practices may create risks that outweigh the benefits of openness.

This project also taught me that ethics in data work is closely tied to description and infrastructure. Metadata, README files, license information, and deposit workflows are not merely technical extras. They shape how data are understood, reused, and governed. Our discussion of open versus proprietary formats, repository compression practices, and data portals such as OpenGeoMetadata, GeoBlacklight, Lunaris, and BTAA GeoPortal showed that information systems carry ethical consequences: they can either support responsible access or make harmful or confusing reuse more likely. For me, this artifact marked an important step in seeing research data management as a field of both technical practice and moral judgment. I assess it as strong evidence of my development in PLO 1 because it shows that I can identify ethical issues in information work and connect them to practical decisions about access, privacy, and stewardship. At the same time, I know this artifact speaks most strongly to the professional ethics side of PLO 1, and I would like to deepen my future understanding of how ethical data practice also intersects with Indigenous data sovereignty and broader equity frameworks. Self-assessment rubric score

Overall score: 4.25/5

Connection to PLO: 4/5Clarity of role: 4/5Depth of reflection: 4.5/5Relevance to career direction: 4.5/5Readiness for professional application: 4/5

Short rationale for score: This artifact shows strong engagement with the professional ethics dimension of PLO 1, especially around privacy, responsible sharing, and data stewardship. The connection is meaningful but not absolute, since the project aligns more with ethical practice than with every element named in PLO 1.

Copyright and permissions note

This artifact was developed collaboratively as a course project in LIBR 559S by Sam Carter, Hannah D’Souza, Garland Joseph, Finn Rose, and Mingzhe Xue. It is included in the portfolio for educational and reflective purposes with attribution to all contributors. Copyright in the group-created project content is shared among the student creators unless otherwise specified. Any third-party platform names, quoted material, screenshots, or referenced standards remain the property of their original rights holders and should be used only in ways consistent with citation, educational fair dealing, or permission requirements.