Introducing appropriate entities and metadata elements for knowledge management systems in the research and technology area

A main requirement for an effective knowledge management is the coverage of appropriate information and knowledge in those systems designed for knowledge management. This can be performed through defining appropriate entities and metadata elements. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to introduce appropriate entities and metadata elements for designing knowledge management systems. In this regard, entities and metadata elements proposed in knowledge management systems (in related body of literature), a professional-specialized social network site (ResearchGate), and also a data model in the research area (CERIF) were extracted, investigated, and then compared by a qualitative approach with collective case studies to derive appropriate entities and metadata elements for an effective knowledge management system. Findings suggest that an effective knowledge management system in the research and technology area is a combination of traditional knowledge management systems and professional-specialized social network sites to cover tacit and explicit knowledge and also the communications of researchers and technologists. This system should include knowledge assets in the forms of persons (researchers and managers), publications (published or in progress), research projects, organization units, and services such as questions and answers, and job announcements along with appropriate metadata elements for every entity.