Digital research environments: a requirements analysis
Digital research environments: a requirements analysis
Physical science depends on historical records as well as new ideas, results, and opportunities. In this increasingly digital era, in which much of modern day life is technology-driven, a significant amount of scientific data remains in forms that are inaccessible to current methods. Moreover, the creation and subsequent accessing of high quality reusable data continues to present challenges. As part of the pilot phase of the Physical Sciences Data Infrastructure (PSDI) Initiative we investigated the current landscape of digitisation in 2022, aiming to produce an outline of what the physical sciences community requires from a Digital Research Environment (DRE). Evidence suggests that while scientists are digitising diverse portions of their work, some research still remains lost in paper lab books, and many barriers (hardware, software and people) persist for the effective management of scientific data. Our studies build on previous research and include an informal survey of what the UK Physical Sciences community considered to be the key requirements for capturing, sharing, and accessing data. The paper ends by outlining future prospects for PSDI and provides some concrete actions for different stakeholders in the community.
ELNs, digital, digital transformation, digitisation, notebooking, physical Sciences, process recording
602-617
Kanza, Samantha
b73bcf34-3ff8-4691-bd09-aa657dcff420
Willoughby, Cerys
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Knight, Nicola
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Bird, Colin Leonard
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Frey, Jeremy G.
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Coles, Simon J.
3116f58b-c30c-48cf-bdd5-397d1c1fecf8
4 April 2023
Kanza, Samantha
b73bcf34-3ff8-4691-bd09-aa657dcff420
Willoughby, Cerys
118d1e49-2c54-4f4d-bd49-fe3a192df9d7
Knight, Nicola
fbc21e18-095e-4c1a-a4bf-6277debf5c4b
Bird, Colin Leonard
0b41e36f-14b8-4995-a441-0467cce0201a
Frey, Jeremy G.
ba60c559-c4af-44f1-87e6-ce69819bf23f
Coles, Simon J.
3116f58b-c30c-48cf-bdd5-397d1c1fecf8
Kanza, Samantha, Willoughby, Cerys, Knight, Nicola, Bird, Colin Leonard, Frey, Jeremy G. and Coles, Simon J.
(2023)
Digital research environments: a requirements analysis.
Digital Discovery, 2 (3), .
(doi:10.1039/d2dd00121g).
Abstract
Physical science depends on historical records as well as new ideas, results, and opportunities. In this increasingly digital era, in which much of modern day life is technology-driven, a significant amount of scientific data remains in forms that are inaccessible to current methods. Moreover, the creation and subsequent accessing of high quality reusable data continues to present challenges. As part of the pilot phase of the Physical Sciences Data Infrastructure (PSDI) Initiative we investigated the current landscape of digitisation in 2022, aiming to produce an outline of what the physical sciences community requires from a Digital Research Environment (DRE). Evidence suggests that while scientists are digitising diverse portions of their work, some research still remains lost in paper lab books, and many barriers (hardware, software and people) persist for the effective management of scientific data. Our studies build on previous research and include an informal survey of what the UK Physical Sciences community considered to be the key requirements for capturing, sharing, and accessing data. The paper ends by outlining future prospects for PSDI and provides some concrete actions for different stakeholders in the community.
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PSDI_Paper_Accepted_Manuscript
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d2dd00121g
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More information
Accepted/In Press date: 30 March 2023
Published date: 4 April 2023
Additional Information:
Funding Information:
This work was funded by EPSRC through grants EP/W032252/1 – PSDI (Physical Sciences Data Infrastructure (PSDI) Phase 1 Pilot), EP/S000356/1 – AI3SD Network+ (Artificial Intelligence and Augmented Intelligence for Automated Investigations for Scientific Discovery) and EP/S020357/1 – PSDS (Physical Sciences Data Science Service). This work also builds on research supported by the following grants: Web Science Centre for Doctoral Training at the University of Southampton funded by EPSRC under Grant No. EP/G036926/1, and the e-Science and digital economy activities funded under EPSRC Grants GR/ R67729/01, EP/C008863/1 and EP/G026238/1 and EP/K003569/1.
Funding Information:
Showcasing research from PSDI: Physical Sciences Data Infrastructure, a collaborative initiative between the University of Southampton and the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), funded by EPSRC grants EP/X032701/1, EP/ X032663/1 and EP/W032252/1.
Funding Information:
This work was funded by EPSRC through grants EP/W032252/1 – PSDI (Physical Sciences Data Infrastructure (PSDI) Phase 1 Pilot), EP/S000356/1 – AI3SD Network+ (Articial Intelligence and Augmented Intelligence for Automated Investigations for Scientic Discovery) and EP/S020357/1 – PSDS (Physical Sciences Data Science Service). This work also builds on research supported by the following grants: Web Science Centre for Doctoral Training at the University of Southampton funded by EPSRC under Grant No. EP/G036926/1, and the e-Science and digital economy activities funded under EPSRC Grants GR/ R67729/01, EP/C008863/1 and EP/G026238/1 and EP/K003569/1.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Author(s). Published by the Royal Society of Chemistry.
Keywords:
ELNs, digital, digital transformation, digitisation, notebooking, physical Sciences, process recording
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 476747
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/476747
PURE UUID: 85d3dd49-aad8-4d4b-9c1a-f3d07d40240c
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Date deposited: 12 May 2023 17:01
Last modified: 10 Apr 2024 02:01
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Contributors
Author:
Cerys Willoughby
Author:
Nicola Knight
Author:
Colin Leonard Bird
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