Public Comment on Access to Federally Supported Research and Development Data and Publications

In response to both the recent OSTP memorandum and the proposed bill (FASTR) that call for increased public access to data and publications resulting from federally funded research, a group of cooperating agencies and the National Research Council have organized two planning meetings held May 14-17 to gather stakeholder input (also included are "brief introductory addresses by a select few experts and summarizing commentary by equally few rapporteurs").

Two meetings will be held, one focused on publications (May 14-15) and the other on data (May 16-17). The public is invited to attend in person (at the National Academy of Sciences in DC) or via webcast, but registration is required. Attendees may also request time to present a verbal or written statement.

Sponsoring Agencies:
Department of Agriculture
Department of Commerce
National Institute of Standards and Technology
National Technical Information Service
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Department of Defense
Department of Education
Department of Energy
Department of Health and Human Services
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Department of the Interior
United States Geological Survey
Department of Transportation
Environmental Protection Agency
Institute of Museum and Library Services
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
National Endowment for the Humanities
National Science Foundation
Smithsonian Institution

Special Report About Missing Data in Clinical Trials

New England Journal of Medicine just released a special report titled "The Prevention and Treatment of Missing Data in Clinical Trials".  The research indicated that trial design, flexible treatment regimens, better follow-up and use of more scientific methods to adjust for missing data could improve results for clinical trials.

To read a review of the article: 

U Mich News Service "Better care must be taken to prevent or account for missing data in clinical trials."

Here's the citation for the original study: N Engl J Med 2012; 367:1355-1360; October 4, 2012 DOI: 10.1056/NEJMsr1203730

UW subscribes to NEJM and you can access the study from a campus computer or through the Libraries proxy server.

(Thanks, Cynthia)

Data Scientists are Sexy

Okay so that's not exactly what the article says but close enough.

The most recent issue of Harvard Business Review published an article titled "Data Scientist: The Sexiest Job of the 21st Century".  Well worth the read as it talks about how data scientists are the hot new job because there is high demand and not many of them out there.  It also discusses the combination of skills that are needed, the companies that are recruiting for them and how they're being used.  The are some interesting comments, as well.

New CLIR Report: The Problem of Data

The Council on Library and Information Resources has released a new report on data titled "The Problem of Data".

From the abstract:

Jahnke and Asher explore workflows and methodologies at a variety of academic data curation sites, and Keralis delves into the academic milieu of library and information schools that offer instruction in data curation. Their conclusions point to the urgent need for a reliable and increasingly sophisticated professional cohort to support data-intensive research in our colleges, universities, and research centers.

For more info: http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub154

If you want to go straight to reading it, here's the PDF download link (1.3 MB): http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub154/pub154.pdf

Pew Report on Big Data

The Pew Research Center's Internet and American Life Project released a report on "Big Data".  The report is based on a survey of 1,021 "Internet experts and other Internet users".

You can find the report and information about the survey here: http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2012/Future-of-Big-Data.aspx

New Geoscience Data Journal

The Royal Meteorological Society has partnered with Wiley to publish an open access journal which "will publish short, earth science data papers cross-linked to datasets that have been deposited in approved data centres and awarded DOIs."

From the announcement:

Geoscience Data Journal is online-only and will publish short data papers (articles describing a dataset, giving details including collection, processing, software and file formats) covering topics ranging from weather and climate, to oceanography, atmospheric chemistry and geology. All published data papers will be linked to datasets, which provide details of the collection, processing and file formatting of data.

“Issues around provenance, curation, recognition and discovery of data have always been important, but never as much as over recent years,” said Professor Paul Hardaker, Chief Executive of the Royal Meteorological Society. “Being able to publish data in a peer-reviewed journal not only helps to address many of these challenges, but for the first time will help to recognise the contribution that data and those scientists that work with data make to the wider community.” 

The journal is now accepting papers.  You can find out more information here: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.
com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)2049-6060

Latest Readings Related to Data

Several readings made available recently related to data:

UK Cabinet Office published an Open Data White Paper: http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/resource-library/open-data-white-paper-unleashing-potential
"sets out how we’re putting data and transparency at the heart of government and public services."

UK Information Commissioner released a "consultation on the draft Anonymisation code of practice"
http://www.ico.gov.uk/about_us/consultations/our_consultations.aspx
"The code of practice will provide guidance on how to assess the risks of identification and how information can be successfully anonymised."

The Royal Society released a report "Science as an Open Enterprise"

http://royalsociety.org/policy/projects/science-public-enterprise/report/

"highlights the need to grapple with the huge deluge of data created by modern technologies in order to preserve the principle of openness and to exploit data in ways that have the potential to create a second open science revolution."