In search of the data revolution: Has the official statistics paradigm shifted?

Article type: Research Article

Authors: MacFeely, Steve

Affiliations: Centre for Policy Studies, University College Cork, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development | E-mail: steve.macfeely@un.org

Correspondence: [*] Corresponding author: Centre for Policy Studies, University College Cork, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. E-mail: steve.macfeely@un.org.

Abstract: What distinguishes revolution from evolution? What events or movements in the world of official statistics have been sufficiently disruptive or transformational to deserve being called revolutionary? Using the definitions of data revolution put forward by the Independent Expert Advisory Group on a Data Revolution for Sustainable Development in their report A World that Counts to identify potential data revolutions and then deriving a framework to evaluate those definitions from Thomas Kuhn’s work The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, this paper investigates, through the lens of official statistics, whether there has been a data revolution or not.

Keywords: Open data, public good, datacratic, ethical frontier, New Global Data Deal

DOI: 10.3233/SJI-200662

Journal: Statistical Journal of the IAOS, vol. 36, no. 4, pp. 1075-1094, 2020