Big data, little data, no data : scholarship in the networked world / Christine L. Borgman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Borgman, Christine L., 1951- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Communication in learning and scholarship--Technological innovations.

Communication in learning and scholarship.

Research--Methodology.

Research.

Research--Data processing.

Information technology.

Information storage and retrieval systems.

Cyberinfrastructure.

Physical Description:

XXV, 383 s. ill.

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Massachusetts : The MIT Press, [2015]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

An examination of the uses of data within a changing knowledge infrastructure, offering analysis and case studies from the sciences, social sciences, and humanities.

"'Big Data' is on the covers of Science, Nature, the Economist, and Wired magazines, on the front pages of the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. But despite the media hyperbole, as Christine Borgman points out in this examination of data and scholarly research, having the right data is usually better than having more data; little data can be just as valuable as big data. In many cases, there are no data -- because relevant data don't exist, cannot be found, or are not available. Moreover, data sharing is difficult, incentives to do so are minimal, and data practices vary widely across disciplines. Borgman, an often-cited authority on scholarly communication, argues that data have no value or meaning in isolation; they exist within a knowledge infrastructure -- an ecology of people, practices, technologies, institutions, material objects, and relationships. After laying out the premises of her investigation -- six "provocations" meant to inspire discussion about the uses of data in scholarship -- Borgman offers case studies of data practices in the sciences, the social sciences, and the humanities, and then considers the implications of her findings for scholarly practice and research policy. To manage and exploit data over the long term, Borgman argues, requires massive investment in knowledge infrastructures; at stake is the future of scholarship."

Contents:

Provocations

What are data?

Data scholarship

Data diversity

Data scholarship in the sciences

Data scholarship in the social sciences

Data scholarship in the humanities

Sharing, releasing, and reusing data

Credit, attribution, and discovery of data

What to keep and why to keep them.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

OCLC-licensed vendor bibliographic record.

ISBN:

9780262327879

0262327872

9780262529914

0262529912

9780262327862

0262327864

OCLC:

900409008