“Valuing Curation Infrastructures” Chosen for 2026 Best JASIST Paper Award
The Association for Information Science & Technology (ASIS&T) is delighted to announce that “Valuing Curation Infrastructures,” written by Morgan F. Wofford, Andrea K. Thomer, Libby Hemphill, Katherine Polasek, & Elizabeth Yakel, published in Volume 76, Issue 12 of the Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology (JASIST), is the recipient of the Best JASIST Paper Award for 2026.
This award recognizes the best refereed paper published in the JASIST volume year preceding the ASIS&T annual meeting. JASIST is published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. The winning paper is selected for its contribution, professional merit, and presentation quality.
In this paper, the authors use a theoretical lens of infrastructural dimensions to examine stakeholders' perceptions of the value of curation, focusing on the social science data repository, the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR). Drawing on 67 interviews with both internal (ICPSR staff) and external (funders, data producers, and reusers) stakeholders, they analyze how value is ascribed to curation across technical, organizational, and social components of infrastructure.
One award juror noted that the paper “This paper provides an accessible and convincing exploration of the importance of curation and the validity of framing it as an element of infrastructure..”
Upon learning of the award for their paper, the authors said, “We're honored to receive this award from ASIST for our work -- thank you! Curation infrastructures deserve sustained investment and scholarly attention. Our project was supported by the Institute for Museum and Library Services and represents the kind of federal investment in libraries and research infrastructure that is now under threat in the US. This award is a reminder of what's at stake when we defund the agencies that make rigorous, public-interest research possible.”
The authors will receive the award during the 2026 meeting of ASIS&T which will be held 6-10 November 2026 in Bangkok, Thailand.
About ASIS&T
The Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T) is the only professional association that bridges the gap between information science practice and research. For nearly 90 years, ASIS&T has been leading the search for new and better theories, techniques, and technologies to improve access to information.