Jessica Yi-Yun Cheng, Ph.D

4 Huntington St· New Brunswick, NJ 08901
yiyun.cheng@rutgers.edu

Hi! I am an assistant professor at the School of Communication and Information at Rutgers University. I am interested in solving data curation problems, specifically how taxonomies and metadata might affect data integration and provenance. My work leverages conceptual models and logic-based reasoning to develop and maintain computational workflows. My ongoing projects are focusing on the following:

  • Examining data curation practices in biodiversity data and natural history museum collections
  • Exploring the use of provenance metadata and conceptual models
  • Comparing different alignment methods used in knowledge organization systems
  • Investigating implicit assumptions in geographic taxonomies

I am looking to recruit 1-2 doctoral students. If you are a prospective PhD student interested in working with me, please apply through the Rutgers SC&I PhD program and mention my name in your application materials. If you are a current PhD, Master's or undegraduate student at Rutgers, please email me to inquire further details about research or independet study opportunities.

Research

selected publications

Taxonomy alignment

Cheng, Y.-Y., & Xia, Y. (2023). A systematic review of methods for aligning, mapping, merging taxonomies in information sciences. Journal of Documentation, (ahead-of-print).doi: https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-01-2023-0003

Cheng, Y.-Y. (2021). Systematic Comparison of Data Models Used in Mapping Knowledge Organization Systems. In Proceedings of the ASIS&T 2021 Annual Meeting.doi: https://doi.org/10.1002/pra2.529

Cheng, Y.-Y., & Ludäscher, B. (2020). Reconciling Taxonomies of Electoral Constituencies and Recognized Tribes of Indigenous Taiwan. Virtual, Oct 23-27. In Proceedings of the ASIS&T 2020 Annual Meeting. doi: https://doi.org/10.1002/pra2.248

Cheng, Y.-Y.& Ludäscher, B. (2019). Exploring Geopolitical Realities through Taxonomies: The Case of Taiwan. In Proceedings of North American Symposium on Knowledge Organization (NASKO 2019), Vol. 7. Drexel University, Philadelphia, June 13-14. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.7152/nasko.v7i1.15625

Cheng, Y.-Y., Franz, N., Schneider, J., Yu, S., Rodenhasen, T., Ludäscher, B. (2017). Agreeing to Disagree: Reconciling Conflicting Taxonomic Views Using a Logic-based Approach. In Proceedings of the ASIS&T 2017 Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C., USA, October 27-November 1st. doi: https://doi.org/10.1002/pra2.2017.14505401006

Biodiversity informatics

Cheng, Y.-Y. (2023). Under Whose Wings? A Conceptual Model for Incorporating Historical Sovereignty Information in Biodiversity Data. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology. :http://doi.org/10.1002/asi.24848

Cheng, Y.-Y., Hoang, K.-L., & Ludäscher, B. (2020). Cacao, Cocao, or Cocoa? Reconciliation of Taxonomic Names in Biodiversity Heritage Library. In Proceedings of the Sixteenth International ISKO Conference, Aalborg, Denmark. doi : https://doi.org/10.5771/9783956507762-88

Cheng, Y.-Y., Dilliplane, S., & Ludäscher, B. (2020). Snailed it! Merging Taxonomically Organized Biodiversity Datasets with Shifting Geopolitical Realities. International Digital Curation Conference (IDCC 2020). Dublin, Ireland, February 17-20 doi: 10.5281/zenodo.3666830

Cheng, Y.-Y. & Ludäscher, B. (2018). Full of beans: a study on the alignment of two flowering plants classification systems. In Proceedings of the 18th European Networked Knowledge Organization Systems Workshop (NKOS 2018). CEUR-WS.org, Porto, Portugal, September 13, 2018. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/161953082.pdf

Thomer, A., Cheng, Y.-Y., Schneider J., Twidale, M., Ludäscher, B. (2017). Towards Alignment of Natural History Museum Database Schemas Using a Logic-based Reasoning Tool. Knowledge Organization, (44) 7, 545-558. doi:https://doi.org/10.5771/0943-7444-2017-7-545

Provenance Research

Choi, I., & Cheng.Y-Y. (Accepted). A Conceptual Model for Tracking the Provenance of Activities in Knowledge Organization Systems. Journal of Documentation.

Bettivia, R., Cheng, Y.-Y., Gryk, M. (2023). What Does Provenance LACK: How Retrospective and Prospective Met the Subjunctive. In Information for a Better World: Normality, Virtuality, Physicality, Inclusivity: 18th International Conference, iConference 2023, Virtual Event, March 13–17, 2023, Proceedings, Part II (pp. 74-82). doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-28032-0_6

Bettivia, R., Cheng, Y.-Y., Gryk, M. (2022). Documenting the Future: Navigating Provenance Metadata Standards. Synthesis Lectures on Information Concepts, Retrieval, and Services. SpringerNature. doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-18700-1

Bettivia, R., Cheng, Y.-Y., Gryk, M., Bishop, W., Chassanoff, A., Greenberg, J., Lischer-Katz, Z. (in press). Storied Past, Bright Future: A Provenance Jam Session. To appear in Proceedings of the ASIS&T 2022 Annual Meeting.

Education

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Doctor of Philosophy, Information Science

Dissertation: Agreeing to Disagree: Applying a Logic-based Approach to Reconciling and Merging Multiple Taxonomies

August 2016-August 2022

National Taiwan University

Master of Arts, Library and Information Science

Graduated with college honors

Thesis: A Study on the Best Practice for Constructing a Cross-lingual Geospatial Information Ontology

Sept 2013-June 2015

National Taiwan University

Bachelor of Arts, Library and Information Science

Graduated with college honors

Sept 2009-June 2013

Grants

  • $150,000, PI, Storytelling Across Time: Building a Community Around Provenance (B-CAP). the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), National Leadership Planning Grants for Libraries. Co-PIs: Rhiannon Bettivia, Michael Gryk.
  • $5,000,000, co-PI, Advance Bridge Technology Clearinghouse (ATBC) project, U.S. Department of Transportation. PI: Nenad Gucunski.
  • $5,000, PI, Grants for Individual Faculty Research, SC&I, Rutgers

Awards

  • Berner-Nash Doctoral Dissertation Award
  • Beta Phi Mu Eugene Garfield Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship
  • Anita and Marie Hostetter Scholarship
  • LEADS-4-NDP Fellowship, 2019, 2020
  • Teacher Ranked as Excellent (University of Illinois)
  • 1 st Place - 2018 ASIS&T Student Design Competition winner

Teaching

Courses
  • Organizing Information (SC&I)
  • Metadata for the Information Professionals (SC&I)
  • Metadata in Theory and Practice (UIUC)
  • Theory & Practice Data Cleaning (UIUC)
  • Special Topics on Knowledge Organization (NTU)
Workshops and Tutorials
  • Navigating through the Panoply of Provenance Metadata Standards useful for Digital Curation, iConference 2021
  • Navigating through the Panoply of Provenance Metadata Standards useful for Digital Curation, IDCC 2020