cyberinfrastructure for e-science

Science 6 May 2005:
Vol. 308. no. 5723, pp. 817 - 821
DOI: 10.1126/science.1110410

Prev | Table of Contents | Next
Viewpoint
Cyberinfrastructure for e-Science
Tony Hey and Anne E. Trefethen

Social research theory

http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/positvsm.php

another site which gives much more insight to theoretical frameworks, great explanations of positivism and post-positivism in relatively general terms.

Grounded theory qualitative research

http://www.sbl.tkk.fi/teaching/courses/T-128.7900/2007/groundedtheory.ppt

a powerpoint slide presentation of grounded theory in qualitative research

Glaser and Strauss, strategies for qualitative research

http://faculty.babson.edu/krollag/org_site/craft_articles/glaser_strauss.html

"Chapter Three: Theoretical Sampling
Building grounded theory requires an interative process of data collection, coding, analysis, and planning what to study next. The researcher needs to by theoretically sensitive as they are collecting and coding data to sense where the data is taking them and what to do next. Coming into a research program with an existing theoretical framework will merely blind them to the richness of the incoming data.

As this iterative process continues, the researcher may explore the same group more deeply or in different ways, or may seek out new groups. Comparison groups should be selected based on their theoretical relevance to further the development of emerging categories. It's best to pick the groups as you go along than choose them all beforehand -- let the data be your guide. In theory generation non-comparability of groups is irrelevant, but it can have an effect on the level of substantive theory developed and it's thus important to pick the right group for the next part of the comparative research."

I can see a study of data curation practice of New Zealand researchers being the type of study which easily leads to further research and raising deeper issues and questions concerning this. I have found by looking at the most recent studies conducted, that they indeed, raise numerous issues which can then invite further investigation of these other areas...By using a grounded theory approach, theories would be developed through interviews and observations of current data curation practice. However, another possibility is taking a more ethnographical approach in terms of studying researchers as a community. This may be particularly effective if tackling this subject in terms of one specific, or a few related disciplines. My intention for my particular study was to look at a broader cross-section of researchers and their different disciplines at this stage

eResearch at Otago

a powerpoint presentation given by Barbara Taylor and Judith Clark of the University of otago library

eresearch.wiki.otago.ac.nz/images/7/77/ERO07-Taylor&Clark.pps

much of this points toward data curation and the role libraries can play

Methodology focus

While I have made a small start on the second assignment, I need to decide what specific area I should focus on. I'm not sure whether to take a very broad look at what researchers (academic, governmental, commercial?) are doing, or narrow it down to specific types of researchers and subjects. I will be meeting with the biodiversity co-ordinator at my work to discuss how that project has been going, but from what I understand, their focus has been largely life sciences (and some physical sciences?) but I will have to find out more.

The literature review turned up a lot of information about what social science researchers are also doing as well as the fact they are seeking to utilise institutional repositories to organise and store data they find as well. This might (and only maybe) more relevant in a LIS setting. I think you could probably go a bit mad with this though...

One month on...

Thought I'd better check in, one month since the previous post is a bit much. We've had midterm break and have had a few lectures since the holidays, mainly concerning research methods, topics after the break have involved covering quantitative and qualitative research methods in detail up until this point in time. I was somewhat dissapointed at my mark for the first assignment (although it was a decent pass at least!), though the feedback was very useful and I think my main area for improvement is my referencing and possibly the structure of the assignment.

ecollaboration literature review report

eCollaboration in Learning, Teaching and Research
Literature Review Report
Irina Elgort (Lead researcher)
Tony Wilson (Research assistant)

http://akoaotearoa.ac.nz/download/ng/file/group-4/n1381-ecollaboration-in-learning-teaching-and-research---literature-review.pdf

This link is to a report reviewing literature pertaining to e-collaboration discussing trends, virtual research environments (VREs), training needs and how this will impact upon the way scientific research is conducted

Some examples of scientific cyberinfrastructure

World protein data bank http://www.wwpdb.org/ This has been established to enable researchers to utilise data on protein which has been gathered over the years, replicating much of this information is expensive and can take considerable time to do in some cases...

http://www.geongrid.org/ The Geosciences Network is another example of a portal where numerous institutions have collaborated to establish access to data...

http://www.ppdg.net/ Particle physics data grid, physicists and computer scientists collaborating to share data...

http://www.us-vo.org/ US National Virtual Observatory enables researchers to utilise stored experimental data

Sloan digital sky survey http://www.sdss.org/ As stated on the website, a most ambitious project conducted to survey the sky, this website records what has been covered as well as news related to the survey...

http://www.nbirn.net/ Biomedical informatics research network is another case of cyberinfatructure being established to store and enable access to considerable amounts of experiements and data

Although all of the above websites deal with data collected across physical and life science disciplines, some articles within the literature point toward these kinds of approaches being suitable for social sciences and humanities.

INFO 528 has commenced...

We have had 3 lectures so far, most have been concerned with the ideas of research methods, particularly going over the processes of commencing a literature review. Assignment one is due on the 23rd of August. I have started reading through what I've been able to find so far, which has mainly been on data curation methods. I will have to read through more of the literature upon data curation methods, but feel I should try to concentrate the bulk of my reading upon current data curation practice and methods researchers overseas use. I have emailed the biodiversity co-ordinator at work and hope to discuss some of their findings as well.

Report of a workshop on research and development priorities to support research data curation.

Sponsored by the Andrew J Mellon Foundation and the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC).
Held in Washington DC, 14 December 2007
Report by Neil Jacobs (JISC)

http://infteam.jiscinvolve.org/files/2008/05/datacurationwshop20071214.pdf

Introduction and Notes

This is the beginning of my INFO 580 project for completion of my MLIS.

I am very interested in exploring the possibility of New Zealand researchers data curation practices.

ROUGH NOTES:
Although there are many repositories established within academic institutions, I am intrigued by the amount of data researchers must have to manage as well as the possibilities which might exist, not only for data curation, but how researchers might share or collaborate on these.

"New Zealand researchers' data curation practices

Institutional repositories have become popular in the tertiary sector as a way of making academic research more widely available, and also preserving it for the future. There is growing interest in making research data available in a similar fashion, but we currently know little about how New Zealand researchers manage their data, and what data curation services may be needed." - SUPERVISOR

Questions:

Do researchers want to make academic research data more widely available? how do they want to preserve data? Issues involved?
How will this be done? Methods of data curation?
What would be the implications for collaboration?
Use of academic research data by students? Implications?