Criteria of Quality Assessment for Scientific Databases

Quality assessment of scientific databases by well-defined standards is becoming increasingly important for users of scientific information. For a database producer it is then necessary to develop rules by which input to the database is performed and to explicitly state these rules. The conceptual difficulties of this approach are discussed. It is shown that quality standards cannot be defined in a formal manner. It is proposed to define the quality of scientific databases by the criteria of relevance, comprehensiveness, and reliability. These criteria should be applicable both at the user’s and at the producer’s level and thus may provide an objective basis. An outline is given on how data input to a scientific database is to be carried out along these criteria. The Gmelin Factual Database is taken as an example to illustrate procedures and problems encountered.