... As we have blogged earlier (CrystalEye - an example of a data repository) CrystalEye was developed by Nick Day as part of his PhD work. The primary aim is to see if large amounts of data - larger than a human can inspect - can be reliably used for scientific work. Before describing this I shall briefly review “errors” and indicate the implications for data repositories.
... [W]e all know that the scientific literature contains “errors”. ... My discussion will be very superficial and is not intended to be a systematic or authoritative coverage; it’s more an indication to data-driven scientists and data repositarians of issues they should address.
“Errors” can include:
variance in the original experiments ...
systematic errors (bias) in the measurements ...
misunderstandering or misreporting of the physical quantity or measurement ...
omission of relevant independent variables. ...
omission of units of measurement ...
Transcription and typographical errors ...
Our inability to describe effects comprehensively ...
We therefore need to know which of these are important. If typographical errors are very low (e.g. less than 1% probability in a data set) we can concentrate on effects which occur more frequently (say 20% of the time). If there is a typo in every data set we may have to use statistical methods to detect them or even abandon the effort. If we estimate a quantity by two different methods and the variance between them is low, then this gives confidence in the precision of each (though says nothing about the accuracy). ...
Posted by
Gavin Baker at 6/24/2008 05:10:00 PM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
