Defining Data Literacy Communities by Their Objectives: A Text Mining Analysis

ABSTRACTData literacy is a multidimensional concept that attracts the attention of a variety of communities of practice, from different angles. The authors grouped these communities of practice in three categories: education, fields and professions, and citizenship. The meaning of data literacy varies depending on who uses it, and its concept is often conveyed in terms other than data literacy. This paper addresses the problematization of data literacy as a term by examining academic literature around it. To this end, a desk study was carried out to gather sources where the term is used. After an extensive search in the main academic databases and a subsequent PRISMA selection process, automated content analysis was applied to the gathered sources. The findings suggest that the concept of data literacy has a different treatment in different communities of practice. For example, librarians and citizen scientists have a different understanding of the concept of data literacy.