Publications

We analyze data sharing practices of astronomers over the past fifteen years. An analysis of URL links embedded in papers published by the American Astronomical Society reveals that the total number of links included in the literature rose dramatically from 1997 until 2005, when it leveled off at around 1500 per year. The analysis also shows that the availability of linked material decays with time: in 2011, 44% of links published a decade earlier, in 2001, were broken. A rough analysis of link types reveals that links to data hosted on astronomers' personal websites become unreachable much faster than links to datasets on curated institutional sites. To gauge astronomers' current data sharing practices and preferences further, we performed in-depth interviews with 12 scientists and online surveys with 173 scientists, all at a large astrophysical research institute in the United States: the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, in Cambridge, MA. Both the in-depth interviews and the online survey indicate that, in principle, there is no philosophical objection to data-sharing among astronomers at this institution. Key reasons that more data are not presently shared more efficiently in astronomy include: the difficulty of sharing large data sets; over reliance on non-robust, non-reproducible mechanisms for sharing data (e.g. emailing it); unfamiliarity with options that make data-sharing easier (faster) and/or more robust; and, lastly, a sense that other researchers would not want the data to be shared. We conclude with a short discussion of a new effort to implement an easy-to-use, robust, system for data sharing in astronomy, at theastrodata.org, and we analyze the uptake of that system to-date.

As the push towards electronic storage, publication, curation, and discoverability of research data collected in multiple research domains has grown, so too have the massive numbers of small to medium datasets that are highly distributed and not easily discoverable - a region of data that is sometimes referred to as the long tail of science. The rapidly increasing, sheer volume of these long tail data present one aspect of the Big Data problem: how does one more easily access, discover, use, and reuse long tail data to lead to new multidisciplinary collaborative research and scientific advancement? In this paper, we describe Data Bridge, a new e-science collaboration environment that will realize the potential of long tail data by implementing algorithms and tools to more easily enable data discoverability and reuse. Data Bridge will define different types of semantic bridges that link diverse datasets by applying a set of sociometric network analysis (SNA) and relevance algorithms. We will measure relevancy by examining different ways datasets can be related to each other: data to data, user to data, and method to data connections. Through analysis of metadata and ontology, by pattern analysis and feature extraction, through usage tools and models, and via human connections, Data Bridge will create an environment for long tail data that is greater than the sum of its parts. In the project's initial phase, we will test and validate the new tools with real-world data contained in the Data verse Network, the largest social science data repository. In this short paper, we discuss the background and vision for the Data Bridge project, and present an introduction to the proposed SNA algorithms and analytical tools that are relevant for discoverability of long tail science data.