<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><sec><h3>Purpose</h3><p>This paper aims to assess if the extent of openness and the coverage of data sets released by European governments have a significant impact on citizen trust in public institutions.</p></sec><sec><h3>Design/methodology/approach</h3><p>Data for openness and coverage have been collected from the Open Data Inventory 2018 (ODIN), by Open Data Watch; institutional trust is built up as a formative construct based on the European Social Survey (ESS), Round 9. The relations between the open government data features and trust have been tested on the basis of structural equation modelling (SEM).</p></sec><sec><h3>Findings</h3><p>The paper reveals that as European governments improve data openness, disaggregation, and time coverage, people tend to trust them more. However, the size of the effect is still small and, comparatively, data coverage effect on citizens’ confidence is more than twice than the impact of openness.</p></sec><sec><h3>Research limitations</h3><p>This paper analyzes the causal effect of Open Government Data (OGD) features captured in a certain moment of time. In upcoming years, as OGD is implemented and a more consistent effect on people is expected, time series analysis will provide with a deeper insight.</p></sec><sec><h3>Practical implications</h3><p>Public officers should continue working in the development of a technological framework that contributes to make OGD truly open. They should improve the added value of the increasing amount of open data currently available in order to boost internal and external innovations valuable both for public agencies and citizens.</p></sec><sec><h3>Originality/value</h3><p>In a field of knowledge with little quantitative empirical evidence, this paper provides updated support for the positive effect of OGD strategies and it also points out areas of improvement in terms of the value that citizens can get from OGD coverage and openness.</p></sec></abstract>

PurposeThis paper aims to assess if the extent of openness and the coverage of data sets released by European governments have a significant impact on citizen trust in public institutions.Design/methodology/approachData for openness and coverage have been collected from the Open Data Inventory 2018 (ODIN), by Open Data Watch; institutional trust is built up as a formative construct based on the European Social Survey (ESS), Round 9. The relations between the open government data features and trust have been tested on the basis of structural equation modelling (SEM).FindingsThe paper reveals that as European governments improve data openness, disaggregation, and time coverage, people tend to trust them more. However, the size of the effect is still small and, comparatively, data coverage effect on citizens’ confidence is more than twice than the impact of openness.Research limitationsThis paper analyzes the causal effect of Open Government Data (OGD) features captured in a certain moment of time. In upcoming years, as OGD is implemented and a more consistent effect on people is expected, time series analysis will provide with a deeper insight.Practical implicationsPublic officers should continue working in the development of a technological framework that contributes to make OGD truly open. They should improve the added value of the increasing amount of open data currently available in order to boost internal and external innovations valuable both for public agencies and citizens.Originality/valueIn a field of knowledge with little quantitative empirical evidence, this paper provides updated support for the positive effect of OGD strategies and it also points out areas of improvement in terms of the value that citizens can get from OGD coverage and openness.

Government Data Openness and Coverage. How do They Affect Trust in European Countries?

San Antonio Catholic University of Murcia

Faculty of Law and Business Administration

Journal of Data and Information Science

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

PurposeThis paper aims to assess if the extent of openness and the coverage of data sets released by European governments have a significant impact on citizen...

Index	NFI	TLI	CFI	GFI	AGFI	RMSEA
Threshold	>0.9	>0.9	>0.95	>0.9	>0.85	<0.08
Model's values	0.993	0.987	0.993	0.992	0.979	0.051

Variable	Definition	Source
Data Coverage (D_COV)	The score is based on the availability of key indicators and appropriate disaggregation over time and for geographic subdivisions.	Open Data Inventory (ODIN)
Data Openness (D_OPEN)	Its score is based on whether data can be downloaded in machine-readable and non-proprietary formats, are accompanied by metadata and download options exist such as bulk download and user-selection or APIs, and have an open terms of use.	Open Data Inventory (ODIN)
Trust in Parliament (TRSTPRL)	How much a citizen personally trust in countries’ parliament	European Social Survey (ESS)
Trust in politicians (TRSTPLT)	How much a citizen personally trust in the politicians
Trust in political parties (TRSTPRT)	How much a citizen personally trust in political parties
Trust in European Parliament (TRSTEP)	How much a citizen personally trust in the European parliament
Trust in legal system (TRSTLGL)	How much a citizen personally trust in the legal system?

	Mean	Minimum	Maximum	Std. Dev.	Range
Open Data Coverage	62.041	46	79	8.725	0–100
Open Data Openness	76.915	52	96	10.908	0–100
Trust in Parliament	4.511	0	10	2.488	0–10
Trust in politicians	3.590	0	10	2.376	0–10
Trust in political parties	3.582	0	10	2.339	0–10
Trust in European Parliament	4.381	0	10	2.465	0–10
Trust in legal system	5.371	0	10	2.555	0–10

Government Data Openness and Coverage. How do They Affect Trust in European Countries?

Article Category: Research Paper

Publicado en línea: 27 ene 2021

Páginas: 139 - 153

Recibido: 12 ago 2020

Aceptado: 19 nov 2020

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/jdis-2021-0010

Palabras clave
Open government data, Open data, Trust, Public policy

© 2021 Nicolás Gonzálvez-Gallego et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Figure 1

Model fit indexes.

Conceptual model. Variables.

Descriptive statistics.

Factor matrix.

Government Data Openness and Coverage. How do They Affect Trust in European Countries?

Article Category: Research Paper

Publicado en línea: 27 ene 2021

Páginas: 139 - 153

Recibido: 12 ago 2020

Aceptado: 19 nov 2020

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/jdis-2021-0010

Palabras claveOpen government data, Open data, Trust, Public policy

© 2021 Nicolás Gonzálvez-Gallego et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Figure 1

Model fit indexes.

Conceptual model. Variables.

Descriptive statistics.

Factor matrix.

Palabras clave
Open government data, Open data, Trust, Public policy