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1 – 10 of 543The purpose of this paper is to examine three different, but related, distributed computing technologies in the context of public‐funded e‐science research, and to present the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine three different, but related, distributed computing technologies in the context of public‐funded e‐science research, and to present the author's viewpoint on future directions.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper takes a critical look at the state‐of‐the‐art with regard to three enabling technologies for e‐science. It forms a set of arguments to support views on the evolution of these technologies in support of the e‐science applications of the future.
Findings
Although grid computing has been embraced in public‐funded higher education institutions and research centres as an enabler for projects pertaining to e‐science, the adoption of desktop grids is low. With the advent of cloud computing and its promise of on‐demand provisioning of computing resources, it is expected that the conventional form of grid computing will gradually move towards cloud‐based computing. However, cloud computing also brings with it the “pay‐per‐use” economic model, and this may act as stimulus for organisations engaged in e‐science to harvest existing underutilised computation capacity through the deployment of organisation‐wide desktop grid infrastructures. Conventional grid computing will continue to support future e‐science applications, although its growth may remain stagnant.
Originality/value
The paper argues that there will be a gradual shift in the underlying distributed computing technologies that support e‐science applications of the future. While cloud computing and desktop grid computing will gain in prominence, the growth of traditional cluster‐based grid computing may remain dormant.
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This paper aims to analyse whether, and how far, library and information services (LIS) are involved in e‐Science and grid computing projects funded by authorities in the European…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to analyse whether, and how far, library and information services (LIS) are involved in e‐Science and grid computing projects funded by authorities in the European Union and Germany. It explains and emphasises the relevance of LIS‐based information services and expertise in e‐Science activities.
Design/methodology/approach
Projects were analysed to determine the extent to which institutions or persons with LIS expertise were involved and information services provided.
Findings
Very few of the e‐Science projects made use of LIS‐based services. This omission could reduce the quality of e‐Science‐related research in the long term and LIS experts could lose their role and expertise in serving scientists. Further research is needed to verify this. Additionally research is needed to determine whether e‐Science projects in other countries are also lacking LIS services.
Research limitations/implications
The research was undertaken during the preliminary phase of the projects.
Practical implications
Funding should emphasise the inclusion and provision of LIS services.
Originality/value
The findings show a lack of LIS services in e‐Science projects, which could otherwise enhance the projects' development and the distribution of their results.
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Jenny Fry, Ralph Schroeder and Matthijs den Besten
This paper seeks to discuss the question of “openness” in e‐Science.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to discuss the question of “openness” in e‐Science.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is based on 12 in‐depth interviews with principal investigators, project managers and developers involved in UK e‐Science projects, together with supporting documentary evidence from project web sites. The approach was to explore the juxtaposition of research governance at the institutional level and local research practices at the project level. Interview questions focused on research inputs, software development processes, access to resources, project documentation, dissemination of outputs and by‐products, licensing issues, and institutional contracts.
Findings
The findings suggest that, although there is a widely shared ethos of openness in everyday research practice, there are many uncertainties and yet‐to‐be resolved issues, despite strong policy imperatives towards openly shared resources.
Research limitations/implications
The paper concludes by observing a stratification of openness in practice and the need for more nuanced understanding of openness at the level of policy making. This research was based on interviews within a limited number of e‐Science/Social Science projects and the intention is to address this in future work by scaling the study up to a survey that will reach the entire UK e‐Science/Social Science community.
Practical implications
The fundamental challenge in resolving openness in practice and policy, and thereby moving towards a sustainable infrastructure for e‐Science, is the coordination and integration of goals across e‐Science efforts, rather than one of resolving IPR (Intellectual Property Rights) issues, which has been the central focus of openness debates thus far.
Originality/value
The question of openness has previously been posed on the macro‐level of research policy, e.g. whether science as a whole can be characterized as open science, or in relation to the dissemination of published outputs, e.g. Open Access. Instead, a fine‐grained perspective is taken focusing on individual research projects and the various facets of openness in practice.
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Blanca Rodríguez Bravo and Ma Luisa Alvite Díez
The purpose of this article is to highlight the role of science repositories in the development of e‐science. It aims to provide an overview of the open access collections…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this article is to highlight the role of science repositories in the development of e‐science. It aims to provide an overview of the open access collections currently operating in Spain.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper is an examination of the tools, type of contents, coverage and aims of the digital research collections generated by Spanish academic bodies.
Findings
There is only a limited development of institutional repositories, although it is possible to detect a growing tendency to create them. At the present moment, these digital collections seem principally to be seeking visibility for scientific output such as theses, journals, work in progress, preliminary results and other fringe or unconventional literature, without currently making use of academic teaching and learning materials or corpora relating to the cultural heritage.
Practical implications
It would be desirable for government to become involved in encouraging open access within a new model for academic communication. It would appear crucial for the repositories aimed at spreading knowledge of scientific research to set in place mechanisms for rigorous peer assessment, so as to ensure the quality of the scholarly work deposited.
Originality/value
This paper considers the role of science repositories in the development of e‐Science. The availability of resources for e‐science, the need to support the compilation of repositories of information in electronic format and the access to digitized content is a matter of maximum priority for any national science policy. Designing a new model for academic communication requires collaboration from the authorities, from universities, from librarians and also support from researchers themselves.
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Li Si, Xiaozhe Zhuang, Wenming Xing and Weining Guo
This article aims to summarize the employers' requirements of scientific data specialists and the status quo of LIS education organizations' training system for scientific data…
Abstract
Purpose
This article aims to summarize the employers' requirements of scientific data specialists and the status quo of LIS education organizations' training system for scientific data specialists. It also focuses on the matching analysis between the course content and the responsibilities as well as requirements of scientific data specialists. Moreover, in order to provide some indications for LIS education of scientific data specialists in China, it presents the training objectives and modes.
Design/methodology/approach
Some job portals for librarians and the comprehensive job portals are investigated as information sources and the keywords such as “scientific data management”, “data service”, “data curation”, “e-Science”, “e-Research”, “data specialist” are selected to retrieval library-released job advertisements for scientific data specialists to understand the library's requirements towards scientific data specialists' core capabilities. Meanwhile the course catalogues of all iSchools' web sites are searched directly in order to find if scientific data courses are provided.
Findings
Libraries value teamwork ability, communication ability, interpersonal ability and a good use of data curation tools as the core competences for scientific data specialists. Candidates who possess a second advanced degree, who understand libraries, who hold demonstrated knowledge of metadata standards, and who emphasize details, under the same condition, are more likely to be considered first. Libraries do not have a unified title for scientific data specialists yet. The current curriculums of iSchools mainly cover research method, data science, data management and data service, data statistic and analysis, data warehouse, information studies and technologies, and so on.
Originality/value
This unique study explores some required qualifications of science data specialist surveyed by job openings, including the core skills, position requirements, responsibilities of the job, and some qualifications. It also investigates the related curriculum setting of iSchool universities through course descriptions. This study is very useful for curriculum development in Chinese LIS education of scientific data specialists including required core courses and selected electives, and to promote the practice of data service in Chinese academic libraries.
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Tony Hey and Jessie Hey
The purpose of this article is to explain the nature of the “e‐Science’ revolution in twenty‐first century scientific research and its consequences for the library community.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this article is to explain the nature of the “e‐Science’ revolution in twenty‐first century scientific research and its consequences for the library community.
Design/methodology/approach
The concepts of e‐Science are illustrated by a discussion of the CombeChem, eBank and SmartTea projects. The issue of open access is then discussed with reference to arXiv, PubMed Central and EPrints. The challenges these trends present to the library community are discussed in the context of the TARDis project and the University of Southampton Research Repository.
Findings
Increasingly academics will need to collaborate in multidisciplinary teams distributed across several sites in order to address the next generation of scientific problems. In addition, new high‐throughput devices, high‐resolution surveys and sensor networks will result in an increase in scientific data collected by several orders of magnitude. To analyze, federate and mine this data will require collaboration between scientists and computer scientists; to organize, curate and preserve this data will require collaboration between scientists and librarians. A vital part of the developing research infrastructure will be digital repositories containing both publications and data.
Originality/value
The paper provides a synthesis of e‐Science concepts, the question of open access to the results of scientific research, and a changing attitude towards academic publishing and communication. The paper offers a new perspective on coming demands on the library and is of special interest to librarians with strategic tasks.
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Shamal Faily and Ivan Fléchais
The purpose of this paper is to identify the key cultural concepts effecting security in multi‐organisational systems and align these with design techniques and tools.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify the key cultural concepts effecting security in multi‐organisational systems and align these with design techniques and tools.
Design/methodology/approach
A grounded theory model of security culture was derived from the related security culture literature and empirical data from an e‐Science project. Influencing concepts were derived from these and aligned with recent work on techniques and tools for usable secure systems design.
Findings
Roles and responsibility, sub‐cultural norms and contexts, and different perceptions of requirements were found to be influencing concepts towards a culture of security. These concepts align with recent work on personas, environment models, and related tool support.
Originality/value
This paper contributes a theoretically and empirically grounded model of security culture. This is also the first paper explicitly aligning key concepts of security culture to design techniques and tools.
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This paper aims to present an approach where assumption personas are used to engage stakeholders in the elicitation and specification of security requirements at a late stage of a…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to present an approach where assumption personas are used to engage stakeholders in the elicitation and specification of security requirements at a late stage of a system’s design.
Design/methodology/approach
The author has devised an approach for developing assumption personas for use in participatory design sessions during the later stages of a system’s design. The author validates this approach using a case study in the e-Science domain.
Findings
Engagement follows by focusing on the indirect, rather than direct, implications of security. More design approaches are needed for treating security at a comparatively late stage. Security design techniques should scale to working with sub-optimal input data.
Originality/value
This paper contributes an approach where assumption personas engage project team members when eliciting and specifying security requirements at the late stages of a project.
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The purpose of this work is to introduce a generic conceptual and methodological framework for the study of emergent social and intellectual patterns and trends in a diverse range…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this work is to introduce a generic conceptual and methodological framework for the study of emergent social and intellectual patterns and trends in a diverse range of sense‐and decision‐making activities.
Design/methodology/approach
The development of the framework is driven by three motivating challenges: capturing the collective intelligence of science, fostering scientific discoveries in science and e‐Science, and facilitating evidence‐based librarianship (EBL). The framework is built on concepts such as structural holes and intellectual turning points, methodologies and techniques for progressive knowledge domain visualization and differentiation of conflicting opinions, and information integration models to achieve coherent transitions between different conceptual scales.
Findings
Structural holes and turning points are detected and validated with the domain of terrorism research as an example. Conflicting opinions are differentiated in the form of a decision tree of phrases with the greatest information gains. Fundamental issues concerning the reliability of common assumptions across multiple levels of granularity are identified. Knowledge diffusion is studied in terms of information integration between a geographic space and an intellectual space.
Research limitations/implications
This study characterizes a holistic sense‐making approach with three exemplar themes. Future research is needed to develop theoretical foundations and corresponding techniques to sustain additional themes.
Practical implications
The work contributes to the practice of improving our understanding of the collective intelligence in science.
Originality/value
The value of the work is the conceptual and methodological contributions to address various phenomena across micro‐ and macroscopic levels.
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Moira Paterson, David Lindsay, Ann Monotti and Anne Chin
The aim of this paper is to provide a brief overview of the evolution of a new e‐research paradigm and to outline key projects and developments in Europe, North America, Canada…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to provide a brief overview of the evolution of a new e‐research paradigm and to outline key projects and developments in Europe, North America, Canada and Australia. The article also provides a detailed summary of the Dataset Acquisition, Accessibility and Annotation e‐Research Technology (DART) project.
Design/methodology/approach
A review of relevant government reports, documents and general literature was conducted.
Findings
Projects currently being conducted in Europe, the USA, Canada and Australia are part of an international movement that aims to use modern ICTs to enhance e‐research. The DART project is a significant part of this movement as it has adopted a “whole process” approach to e‐research, and provides a platform for the examination of the technical, legal and policy issues that arise in the new e‐research environment.
Originality/value
Provides an overview of current projects that concern the development of e‐research, with a particular focus on Australian research and the DART project.
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