“Is data publication the right metaphor?”—An Update

2012-01-24T05:10:00.000-08:00

It has been a bit over a month since we submitted our essay to the Data Science Journal and made itavailable for open review. We have been overwhelmed by the response. Throughcomments on this blog, posts on other blogs, and direct contact, we now havesome 50 pages of review comments from about two-dozen individuals. The reviewsrange from a few casual comments to very thorough and detailed critiques. Andwe still need to receive the formal reviews from the DSJ editor. If we havedone nothing else, we have succeeded in sparking a conversation.

We are waiting for the formal reviews from DSJ before werevise the paper, and we anticipate some major revisions. Meanwhile, though, wecan offer a few clarifications, observations, and mea culpas regarding the direction of the conversation

First, we must clarify that this is an essay. It is an essay supported with evidence, but it is an opinionpiece not a research paper (Indeed, it seems many information science paperscould be better classified as well-evidenced essays rather than formal researchresults). We believe there is still much research to be done in this area, butwe hope we have helped frame some of that research. We also hope that we haveled some people to re-examine some of their assumptions about current practice.

Despite this being an essay, it is clear we need to be more specificand precise in our language, and we need to better define our terms. We admitto being rather cursory in our analysis. We note that the four paradigms we putforward could be more deeply considered. Also, the paradigms are not alldescribing exactly the same thing and are not directly parallel or mutually exclusive.Paradigm or data management approach may not be the right term. Maybe somethingmore like a production pattern or communications space. We will tighten up ourlanguage and discussion. We also missed some important work that we willreference next time. These include papers by Lawrence, de Waard, Baker, andothers in context.

We remain skeptical of the data publication metaphor, but itis clear that not everyone shares this skepticism. We may have struck a fewnerves. Much seems to revolve around the definition of “publication” (e.g., bigP vs. little p), and therein lies the rub. It is clear that the community hasnot converged on a solid definition(s) of data publication. We argue that weneed to broaden our thinking before we start converging too much on any givenapproach. We don’t believe we can assume that the current scholarly communicationprocess is durable or even fully relevant. We believe we need to criticallypick and chose desirable aspects from many frames of thinking. We also feelthat we did not adequately convey how metaphor can limit how people think. Wewill beef that section up a bit, but we don’t expect to end the debate. Rather wehope the debate continues, but we did see some level of consensus.

It is clear that this was an important question to ask, andthat this was a good time to ask it. Further, cognitive science, socialscience, and philosophy were recognized as important to consider in datascience practice. Many agreed on the need for more metaphors, even those veryfond of the publication metaphor. Several alternative metaphors were suggested.Many are intrigued by the ecosystem metaphor, but it remains inchoate, and itis unclear how it would work to encourage desired behavior by data providers. All agree that we need data to bepreserved, recognized, and more fully considered in the scholarly process. Weare all working in that direction, even if we are not all on the exact samepath.

Clearly, these sorts of discussion are very valuable. Wecontinue to welcome feedback and will consider everything we receive up untilthe time we receive formal reviews and begin revising the paper.

Thanks again for the many, thoughtful comments,

—Mark and Peter

Seeking open review of provocative data publication essay

2011-12-14T05:59:00.000-08:00

Peter Fox and I have submitted an essay to the Data Science Journal entitled "Is data publication the right metaphor?". If accepted, the essay would be part of a special issue resulting from the inaugural conference of the new ICSU World Data System.

In this essay we discuss the importance of metaphor in framing how we think, and we critically examine the data publication and several other metaphors. Our intention is to be somewhat provacative and to spark a conversation in the community about how we conceive of, describe, and evolve the overall data management enterprise.

While the paper is submitted for formal peer-review, the DSJ editors have also allowed us to make the essay available for open community review. The essay is available at http://dl.dropbox.com/u/546900/parsons_fox_metaphor_dsj_open.docx. We encourage everyone to read it and to provide constructive critique in the comments of this blog.

Apologies for cross posting, but we really want to get the word out.

Thank you,

Mark Parsons and Peter Fox

Data Matters

“Is data publication the right metaphor?”—An Update

Seeking open review of provocative data publication essay