Neglect Causes Massive Loss of 'Irreplaceable' Research Data 108
Nerval's Lobster writes "Research scientists could learn an important thing or two from computer scientists, according to a new study (abstract) showing that data underpinning even groundbreaking research tends to disappear over time. Researchers also disappear, though more slowly and only in terms of the email addresses and the other public contact methods that other scientists would normally use to contact them. Almost all the data supporting studies published during the past two years is still available, as are at least some of the researchers, according to a study published Dec. 19 in the journal Current Biology. The odds that supporting data is still available for studies published between 2 years and 22 years ago drops 17 percent every year after the first two. The odds of finding a working email address for the first, last or corresponding author of a paper also dropped 7 percent per year, according to the study, which examined the state of data from 516 studies between 2 years and 22 years old. Having data available from an original study is critical for other scientists wanting to confirm, replicate or build on previous research – goals that are core parts of the evolutionary, usually self-correcting dynamic of the scientific method on which nearly all modern research is based. No matter how invested in their own work, scientists appear to be 'poor stewards' of their own work, the study concluded."
Drinking from the firehose. (Score:4, Insightful)
My wife is a wildlife biologist. Her office collects raw field data all year, compiles data, runs stats, writes reports, reads reports, creates a pretty large volume of "product" every year.
I ask her who exactly reads all the required papers and reports they produce. The federal Fish and Wildlife Service demands product. State demands product. Various agencies with funding ties that would confuse anyone all demand product. The real ass-kicker? Almost none of it is actually READ by those who asked for it. The papers that are read, are rarely read by more than one person.
In the end, thousands and thousands of offices like hers, producing real scientific data, it is just too much.
The number of people consuming the product is DWARFED by those producing it. The number of people tasked to archive, organize, store, catalog, and index this torrent of information are even FEWER than those who consume it.
These are "real life" scientists out there every day. Not throw in academia, including "research academia".
The bottom line? A true first-world problem. We produce WAY more research than we are prepared to do ANYTHING with.
Re:This was understood in Engineering projects too (Score:4, Insightful)
Or as a slight step up....there is NO chance that America could build a Saturn V rocket these days. It was a great workhorse, but so complicated that the loss of a few percent of the drawings, and the number of engineers that worked on it that have retired or died means that reproducing it is impossible now.
In any case, as for the loss of data...that IS a problem. Back in the Olden Days, before someone decided that the computer, with its amazingly fluid and ever-changing methods of storage were the answer to saving data, much of it was printed on paper and tucked away in libraries. Is that still a workable solution? I do not know, but, I do know that when one is trying to store information for a long time, it HAS to be in the simplest and most durable medium and format available.