HNDS-I: CatMapper: User-friendly tools for integrating data by complex, dynamic categories

Scientists and policymakers often bring together data from many different sources to study pressing social issues (e.g., economic change, migration, war, political movements, and health and well-being). However, bringing together data from different datasets is challenging when datasets use different labels for the same thing or use the same label for different things. CatMapper is an online application that helps users overcome the challenge of translating across datasets. With CatMapper’s tools, users can unlock and combine data in new ways to answer pressing social questions. This project creates a version of CatMapper that includes user-tested online tools and builds a community of users who can benefit from them. The project also provides educational and research opportunities for students. CatMapper consists of two applications that are used to connect categories often used in the social sciences. SocioMap focuses on thousands of categories for ethnicities, languages, religions, and administrative districts. ArchaMap focuses on thousands of categories used for material artifacts and sites in archaeology. To help link datasets together, CatMapper provides four sets of tools to: (1) explore information about specific categories, (2) translate categories across datasets, (3) bring together datasets in new ways, and (4) store and share translations of and merges between different datasets for use by others. CatMapper includes self-guided tutorials for researchers, students, and other interested members of the public wishing to learn how to connect data across diverse data streams to answer scientific questions. CatMapper is freely available to users across academia, industry, non-governmental organizations, and government institutions. It includes a user-friendly interface to facilitate analyses of population data at multiple spatial and temporal scales. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.