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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Ship Space To Database: Scientific And Social Motivations For A Database To Support Deep Subseafloor Biosphere Research, Peter Darch, Christine L. Borgman Dec 2013

Ship Space To Database: Scientific And Social Motivations For A Database To Support Deep Subseafloor Biosphere Research, Peter Darch, Christine L. Borgman

Christine L. Borgman

What motivates the building of databases by scientific collaborations? In this paper, we argue that not only are databases being built to support scientific work per se, but also with the intention of performing a variety of social functions. To explore this, we present findings from a longitudinal ethnographic case study of a large, multidisciplinary, distributed scientific project studying subseafloor microbial life. A critical element of this project’s Data Management Plan is the construction of a data portal. We found a range of factors motivating not only the very construction of this portal, but also the inclusion of particular features. …


The Ups And Downs Of Knowledge Infrastructures In Science: Implications For Data Management, Christine L. Borgman, Peter Darch, Ashley E. Sands, Jillian C. Wallis, Sharon Traweek Dec 2013

The Ups And Downs Of Knowledge Infrastructures In Science: Implications For Data Management, Christine L. Borgman, Peter Darch, Ashley E. Sands, Jillian C. Wallis, Sharon Traweek

Christine L. Borgman

The promise of technology-enabled, data-intensive scholarship is predicated upon access to knowledge infrastructures that are not yet in place. Scientific data management requires expertise in the scientific domain and in organizing and retrieving complex research objects. The Knowledge Infrastructures project compares data management activities of four large, distributed, multidisciplinary scientific endeavors as they ramp their activities up or down; two are big science and two are small science. Research questions address digital library solutions, knowledge infrastructure concerns, issues specific to individual domains, and common problems across domains. Findings are based on interviews (n=113 to date), ethnography, and other analyses of …


The Data Conservancy: Science-Driven Information Science, Christine L. Borgman, Carole L. Palmer Jun 2010

The Data Conservancy: Science-Driven Information Science, Christine L. Borgman, Carole L. Palmer

Christine L. Borgman

The Data Conservancy –which is a National Science Foundation funded Datanet project with a diverse array of partners – embraces a shared vision: data curation is not an end, but rather a means to collect, organize, validate, and preserve data to address grand research challenges that face society. Key to the data conservancy approach is information science research on the data practices of the science domains. Three teams are conducting social studies of individual science domains. Prof. Carole Palmer of the University of Illinois will report on their comparative studies of multiple biosciences domains. Prof. Christine Borgman of the University …


The Digital Future Is Now: What The Humanities Can Learn From Escience, Christine L. Borgman May 2010

The Digital Future Is Now: What The Humanities Can Learn From Escience, Christine L. Borgman

Christine L. Borgman

As the digital humanities mature, their scholarship is taking on many characteristics of the sciences, becoming more data-intensive, information-intensive, distributed, multi-disciplinary, and collaborative. While few scholars in the humanities or arts would wish to be characterized as emulating scientists, they do envy the comparatively rich technical and resource infrastructure of the sciences. The interests of all scholars in the university align with respect to access to data, library resources, and computing infrastructure. However, the scholarly interests of the sciences and humanities diverge regarding research practices, sources of evidence, and degrees of control over those sources. This talk will explore the …


The Digital Archive: The Data Deluge Arrives In The Humanities, Christine L. Borgman May 2010

The Digital Archive: The Data Deluge Arrives In The Humanities, Christine L. Borgman

Christine L. Borgman

The data deluge has began to overwhelm the sciences, as instruments such as sensor networks and space telescopes are generating far more data than can possibly be inspected manually. Only digital tools can make sense of these vast volumes of data. As the humanities draw more heavily on digital archives, their scholarship is taking on many characteristics of the sciences, becoming more data-intensive, information-intensive, distributed, multi-disciplinary, and collaborative. However, the humanities typically lack the technical infrastructure available to the sciences. The scholarly interests of the sciences and humanities also diverge with respect to research practices, sources of evidence, and degrees …