Many cities are now encouraging shoppers to bring their own reusable bags into stores instead of putting food and other goods in plastic bags that are usually discarded after a single use. Reusable is a word you`ll often see next to words like recyclable, renewable, or sustainable in an environmentally friendly context. It comes from the prefix “re-” re- and usable. The proposed meaning of data and software citations could be extended by (re)use attributes to meet community needs for a more granular and differentiable system that can be associated with certain levels of value. There are several ways to use research data resources. These concrete measures have the potential to be classified as attributes of the use of research data. Usage attributes have the potential to be measurable, distinguishable, and add the granularity needed to translate usage figures into impact measures to the use of research data. These attributes must be derived from real-world observations and must be generic enough to be applicable to all disciplines. Admittedly, this objective deserves its own research and should be discussed separately from the general definition of (re)use.

However, a good starting point for deriving usage attributes could be citation (data) goal classifications. These classifications (e.g., research use, data exchange, attribution, miscellaneous) could be used to distinguish between the integration of research resources into research environments and non-research-related measures such as the indication of specific characteristics or methodological aspects of data/software. But a refined classification of attributes needs to be the subject of another publication, separate from the general discussion on reuse and use. Fear agrees with Zimmerman on reused data. She also agrees with Curty & Quin that multiple datasets can be combined. But it broadens the scope, as it also considers the replication or reproduction of a research result as reuse. At this point, she compares Schöch`s conclusions to Zimmerman`s definitions. It should be noted that it excludes self-reuse.

These definitions underline that the user of the data is another essential element of the concept of reuse. While other definitions are so broad that they could meet any need: all the definitions previously given in the discourse refer to a more linear usage model. They all assume that the research data was created, analyzed, and processed for a specific purpose to serve that purpose, and was ultimately published after leading to certain research results. In this model, reuse takes place only after the data has been used for the original purpose. A graphical representation of this perspective may resemble Figure 3. Researcher 1 (R1) has some interest in research and raises a research question (Q1). Therefore, R1 collects data. Data analysis leads to a final publication (P1).

The data is uploaded to a public research data repository, where another third-party user (R2) searches for appropriate data for their research question (Q2). R2 can adapt the dataset (D-> D`) to their question and method and publish the results in an article (P2) some time after the first publication (P1). This model shows a reuse scenario that meets all the criteria discussed so far (data type, user, purpose, time). The involvement of a third party is controversial. For example, Fear and Rolland explicitly do not consider self-reuse to be reuse. The following two definitions also include the user aspect, but include self-reuse and give a different picture: To return to the question of the relationship between reuse and use, which is a key issue raised by Pasquetto et al. (2017), the question is whether this model demonstrates use or reuse and whether the difference between the two concepts can be measured. The ability to be measured or counted in any way is an important consideration for a theory-based definition that should be applicable in practice.

Wikipedia gives a more detailed explanation of the term: “Reuse is the act or practice of reusing something, whether for its original purpose (conventional reuse) or to fulfill another function (creative reuse or reuse).” This definition distinguishes between two use scenarios. Conventional reuse refers to concepts such as replication, reproduction or reanalysis. The purpose of using the object is the same as the first time. Creative reuse is different from all other concepts because the intention must be distinguished from the original goal. For the purposes of this article, all scientific articles with a combination of reuse (or secondary reuse or analysis) and data in their title have been selected. A total of 65 works were identified by querying the information resources Google Scholar, Scopus and LISA. The reference portion of all articles was also checked against the same criteria to identify other candidates until no further new literature was found.