{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,16]],"date-time":"2026-02-16T15:53:13Z","timestamp":1771257193718,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":26,"publisher":"Emerald","issue":"2","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2011,3,8]],"date-time":"2011-03-08T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1299542400000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/www.emerald.com\/insight\/site-policies"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2011,3,8]]},"abstract":"<jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-heading\">Purpose<\/jats:title><jats:p>This paper seeks to present a conceptual framework to analyze and improve the quality of empirical databases throughout time \u2013 with operational results which are measurable in terms of cost\u2010benefit.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-heading\">Design\/methodology\/approach<\/jats:title><jats:p>Basing themselves on the general approach of hermeneutics and, more specifically, on Fernand Braudel's concept of \u201c<jats:italic>temporalit\u00e9s \u00e9tag\u00e9es<\/jats:italic>\u201d and Norbert Elias's \u201cevolutive continuum\u201d, the authors develop a temporal framework consisting of three stratified time levels in order to interpret shifts in the quality of databases. The soundness of the framework and its capability of delivering operational results are demonstrated by the development of a case study focusing on social security databases. A second case study in the context of digital cultural heritage is also developed to illustrate the general applicability of this interdisciplinary approach in the context of empirical information systems.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-heading\">Findings<\/jats:title><jats:p>Contrary to the assertions of common theories that postulate a permanent bijective relationship between records in a database and the corresponding reality, this paper provides insights which demonstrate that a database evolves over time along with the interpretation of the values that it allows one to determine. These interdisciplinary insights, when applied practically to concrete case studies, give rise to original operational results in the ICT field of data quality.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-heading\">Practical implications<\/jats:title><jats:p>The framework helps both the managers and the users of empirical databases to understand the necessity to integrate unforeseen observations, neglected <jats:italic>a priori<\/jats:italic> by virtue of the closed world assumption, and to develop operational recommendations to enhance the quality of databases.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title content-type=\"abstract-heading\">Originality\/value<\/jats:title><jats:p>This paper is the first to show the potential of hermeneutics for the task of understanding the evolution of an empirical information system, and also the first to deliver operational outcomes.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1108\/00220411111109476","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2011,2,26]],"date-time":"2011-02-26T08:24:13Z","timestamp":1298708653000},"page":"279-289","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":16,"title":["Hermeneutics applied to the quality of empirical databases"],"prefix":"10.1108","volume":"67","author":[{"given":"Isabelle","family":"Boydens","sequence":"first","affiliation":[]},{"given":"Seth","family":"van Hooland","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]}],"member":"140","reference":[{"key":"key2022013020082827100_b1","unstructured":"Aron, R. (1969), La philosophie critique de l'histoire, Vrin, Paris."},{"key":"key2022013020082827100_b2","unstructured":"Baroux, R. (2006), \u201cEn premi\u00e8re ligne sur le front du travail\u201d, Le Monde, 16 March, p. 3."},{"key":"key2022013020082827100_b3","unstructured":"Best, R. (2007), \u201cLies, damn lies and usage statistics: what's a librarian to do?\u201d, in Fowler, D. (Ed.), Usage Statistics of E\u2010serials, Haworth Information, Binghamton, NY, pp. 199\u2010214."},{"key":"key2022013020082827100_b7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Boyd Rayward, W. (1996), \u201cThe history and historiography of information science: some reflections\u201d, Information Processing and Management, Vol. 32 No. 1, pp. 3\u201017.","DOI":"10.1016\/0306-4573(95)00046-J"},{"key":"key2022013020082827100_b4","unstructured":"Boydens, I. (1999), Informatique, normes et temps, Bruylant, Brussels."},{"key":"key2022013020082827100_b5","unstructured":"Boydens, I. (2007), \u201cQualit\u00e9 de l'information et e\u2010administration: enjeux et perspectives\u201d, in Assar, S. and Boughazala, I. (Eds), Administration \u00e9lectronique: constats et perspectives, Lavoisier\u2010Herm\u00e8s Sciences, Paris, pp. 103\u201020."},{"key":"key2022013020082827100_b9","unstructured":"Dilthey, W. (1988), L'\u00e9dification du monde historique dans les sciences de l'esprit, Editions du Cerf, Paris."},{"key":"key2022013020082827100_b10","unstructured":"Elias, N. (1996), Du temps, Fayard, Paris."},{"key":"key2022013020082827100_b11","unstructured":"Elmasri, R. and Navathe, S. (2007), Fundamentals of Database Systems, Addison\u2010Wesley, Reading, MA."},{"key":"key2022013020082827100_b12","unstructured":"Hofstadter, R.D. (1980), G\u00f6del, Escher, Bach, an Eternal Golden Braid. A Metaphorical Fugue on Minds and Machines in the Spirit of Lewis Carroll, Penguin Books, New York, NY."},{"key":"key2022013020082827100_b13","unstructured":"International Organization for Standards (ISO) (1986), ISO 2788:1986 Guidelines for the Establishment and Development of Monolingual Thesauri, available at: www.iso.org\/iso\/catalogue_detail.htm?csnumber=7776."},{"key":"key2022013020082827100_b14","unstructured":"International Organization for Standards (ISO) (2005), ISO 9000:2005: Quality Management Systems \u2013 Fundamentals and Vocabulary, ISO, Geneva."},{"key":"key2022013020082827100_b15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Madnick, S.E., Wang, R.Y., Lee, Y.W. and Zhu, H. (2009), \u201cOverview and framework for data and information quality research\u201d, Journal of Data and Information Quality, Vol. 1 No. 1, pp. 2\u201022.","DOI":"10.1145\/1515693.1516680"},{"key":"key2022013020082827100_b16","unstructured":"M\u00e9ndez, E. and van Hooland, S. (2009), \u201cMetadata typology and metadata uses\u201d, in Sicilia, M.A. (Ed.), Handbook of Metadata, Semantics and Ontologies, World Scientific Publishing, London."},{"key":"key2022013020082827100_b17","unstructured":"Olson, J. (2003), Data Quality: The Accuracy Dimension, Morgan Kaufmann, San Francisco, CA."},{"key":"key2022013020082827100_b18","unstructured":"Prost, A. (1996), Douze le\u00e7ons sur l'histoire, Seuil, Paris."},{"key":"key2022013020082827100_b26","unstructured":"Redman, T. (1996), Data Quality for the Information Age, Artech House, Boston, MA."},{"key":"key2022013020082827100_b20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Ribes, D. and Finholt, T. (2009), \u201cThe long now of technology infrastructure: articulating tension in development\u201d, Journal of the Association for Information Systems, Vol. 10, special issue, pp. 375\u201098.","DOI":"10.17705\/1jais.00199"},{"key":"key2022013020082827100_b21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Schneider, J. and Borlund, P. (2005), \u201cA bibliometric\u2010based semi\u2010automatic approach to identification of candidate thesaurus terms: parsing and filtering of noun phrases from citation contexts\u201d, Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Conceptions of Library and Information Sciences, CoLIS 2005, Glasgow, UK, June 4\u20108, 2005, Springer, Heidelberg, pp. 226\u201037.","DOI":"10.1007\/11495222_18"},{"key":"key2022013020082827100_b22","unstructured":"Van Hooland, S. (2006), \u201cSpectator becomes annotator: possibilities offered by user\u2010generated metadata for image databases\u201d, paper presented at Immaculate Catalogues: Taxonomy, Metadata and Resource Discovery in the 21st Century, University of East Anglia, 13\u201015 September 2006, available at: http:\/\/homepages.ulb.ac.be\/\u223csvhoolan\/Usergeneratedmetadata.pdf (accessed November 25, 2009)."},{"key":"key2022013020082827100_b23","unstructured":"Van Hooland, S. (2009), \u201cMetadata quality in the cultural heritage sector: stakes, problems and solutions\u201d, PhD thesis, Universit\u00e9 Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels."},{"key":"key2022013020082827100_b25","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Wand, Y. and Wang, R.Y. (1996), \u201cAnchoring data quality dimensions in ontological foundations\u201d, Communications of the ACM, Vol. 39 No. 11, pp. 86\u201095.","DOI":"10.1145\/240455.240479"},{"key":"key2022013020082827100_frd6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Boydens, I. (2010), \u201cStrategic issues relating to data quality for e\u2010government: learning from an approach adopted in Belgium\u201d, in Assar, S., Boughzala, I. and Boydens, I. (Eds), Practical Studies in E\u2010government, ISTE, Eugene, OR.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-1-4419-7533-1_7"},{"key":"key2022013020082827100_frd8","unstructured":"Braudel, F. (1976), La M\u00e9diterran\u00e9e et le monde m\u00e9diterran\u00e9en \u00e0 l'\u00e9poque de Philippe II, Armand Colin, Paris."},{"key":"key2022013020082827100_frd19","unstructured":"Redman, T. (2001), Data Quality: The Field Guide, Digital Press, Boston, MA."},{"key":"key2022013020082827100_frd24","unstructured":"Van Hooland, S., Kaufman, S. and Bontemps, Y. (2008), \u201cAnswering the call for more accountability: applying data\u2010profiling to museum metadata\u201d, Proceedings of the International Conference on Dublin Core and Metadata Applications, Berlin, 22\u201026 September 2008, Berlin, Dublin Core Metadata Initiative, pp. 93\u2010103."}],"container-title":["Journal of Documentation"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"http:\/\/www.emeraldinsight.com\/doi\/full-xml\/10.1108\/00220411111109476","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/www.emerald.com\/insight\/content\/doi\/10.1108\/00220411111109476\/full\/xml","content-type":"application\/xml","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/www.emerald.com\/insight\/content\/doi\/10.1108\/00220411111109476\/full\/html","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,7,24]],"date-time":"2025-07-24T23:38:19Z","timestamp":1753400299000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"http:\/\/www.emerald.com\/jd\/article\/67\/2\/279-289\/216518"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2011,3,8]]},"references-count":26,"journal-issue":{"issue":"2","published-print":{"date-parts":[[2011,3,8]]}},"alternative-id":["10.1108\/00220411111109476"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1108\/00220411111109476","relation":{},"ISSN":["0022-0418"],"issn-type":[{"value":"0022-0418","type":"print"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2011,3,8]]}}}