  Open research data are heralded as having the potential to increase
effectiveness, productivity, and reproducibility in science, but little is
known about the actual practices involved in data search. The socio-technical
problem of locating data for reuse is often reduced to the technological
dimension of designing data search systems. We combine a bibliometric study of
the current academic discourse around data search with interviews with data
seekers. In this article, we explore how adopting a contextual, socio-technical
perspective can help to understand user practices and behavior and ultimately
help to improve the design of data discovery systems.
