Morgan Wofford

Morgan Wofford is a PhD candidate in Information Science at the University of Michigan whose research examines how open data infrastructures shape the production, circulation, and trustworthiness of knowledge. Her work focuses on the socio-technical dimensions of data curation, governance, and reuse, with particular attention to how openness is enacted in practice across different communities. Drawing on perspectives from information science and science and technology studies (STS), she studies how infrastructural design choices embed values, enable or constrain participation, and influence equity and legitimacy in scientific and
public knowledge systems.

Methodologically, Wofford uses qualitative and mixed methods, including interviews, digital ethnography, content analysis, and user-centered research approaches. She has conducted research in collaboration with libraries, data archives, and open science organizations, and her work often translates empirical findings into practical insights for infrastructure design, data services, and policy. Across academic, library, and applied research settings, her goal is to support the development of equitable, trustworthy, and context-aware data infrastructures that better align with the needs of diverse stakeholders.

Dissertation title

Characterizing US Climate Change Skeptics Data Reuse to Generate Insights for Data Repositories and Intermediaries

Dissertation abstract or description

This dissertation examines the data practices of anthropogenic climate change skeptics, focusing on their reuse of open data from public scientific and government sources. It addresses the dual-edged nature of open data: while openness promises to democratize access to information, it also enables data to be repurposed in ways that may challenge scientific consensus. Using digital ethnography—comprising participant observation, content analysis, and semi-structured interviews—this research traces “data journeys” to understand how climate data travel from repositories such as NASA and NOAA through skeptic communities, where they are transformed into alternative interpretations and knowledge artifacts, including graphs, models, and visualizations. This approach examines the socio-technical infrastructures that enable and constrain data reuse, illuminating how skeptics develop trust or distrust in data. The findings offer insights for data repositories and intermediaries seeking to design data services that foster trust in data and climate science, reduce unintentional misuse, and support critiques that advance scientific understanding.

Areas of interest

Archives and Digital Curation; Library and Information Science; Critical Studies of Design and Computing; Science, Technology, and Society

Education

Bachelor of Science in Wildlife, Fish, and Conservation Biology, University of California, Davis, 2014 
Master of Library and Information Science, University of California, Los Angeles, 2018

Selected publications

Wofford, M. F., Thomer, A. K., Hemphill, L., Polasek, K., & Yakel, E. (2025). Valuing curation infrastructures. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology. https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.70015 

Pasquetto, I. V., Cullen, Z., Thomer, A., & Wofford, M. (2024). What is research data “misuse”? And how can it be prevented or mitigated? Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, n/a(n/a). https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.24944 

Thomer, A. K., Wofford, M. F., Lenard, M. C., Dominguez Vidana, S., & Goring, S. J. (2023). Revealing Earth science code and data-use practices using the Throughput Graph Database. In X. Ma, M. Mookerjee, L. Hsu, & D. Hills (Eds.), Recent Advancements in Geoinformatics and Data Science. Geological Society of America. https://doi.org/10.1130/2022.2558(10) 

Wofford, M. F., & Thomer, A. K. (2023). Curating for Contrarian Communities: Data Practices of Anthropogenic Climate Change Skeptics. Proceedings of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 60(1), 442–455. https://doi.org/10.1002/pra2.802 

Borgman, C. L., & Wofford, M. F. (2021). From Data Processes to Data Products: Knowledge Infrastructures in Astronomy. Harvard Data Science Review, 3.3. https://doi.org/10.1162/99608f92.4e792052 

Borgman, C. L., Wofford, M. F., Golshan, M. S., & Darch, P. T. (2020). Collaborative qualitative research at scale: Reflections on 20 years of acquiring global data and making data global. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology. https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.24439 

Wofford, M. F., Boscoe, B. M., Borgman, C. L., Pasquetto, I. V., & Golshan, M. S. (2020). Jupyter Notebooks as Discovery Mechanisms for Open Science: Citation Practices in the Astronomy Community. Computing in Science & Engineering, 22(1), 5–15. https://doi.org/10.1109/MCSE.2019.2932067 

Pasquetto, I. V., Borgman, C. L., & Wofford, M. F. (2019). Uses and Reuses of Scientific Data: The Data Creators’ Advantage. Harvard Data Science Review, 1(2). https://doi.org/10.1162/99608f92.fc14bf2d