Data Journeys in the Sciences

• Other Authors: Leonelli, Sabina (Editor), Tempini, Niccolò (Editor)
• Format: Electronic Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Springer Nature 2020
• Subjects: Philosophy of science; History of science; Interdisciplinary studies; Philosophy of Science; History of Science; Science, Humanities and Social Sciences, multidisciplinary; Humanities and Social Sciences; Big Data; Data Epistemology; Data Ethics; Data Science; Epistemology of Science; Social Studies of Data; Social Studies of Science; Data Collection, Preparation and Reporting; Data at the Large Hadron Collider; Data Journeys in Medical Case Reports; Data Ordering and Visualization; Clustering Practices in Plant Phenomics; Databases in Systems Biology; Data access, Dissemination and Quality Assessment; Methods for Climate Data Processing; Data Journeys in Pharmaceutical Regulation; Data Mixes in Big Data Linkage Practice; Radiocarbon Dating and Robustness Reasoning in Archaeology; Data from Objects to Assets; Open Access
• Online Access: DOAB: download the publication; DOAB: description of the publication

This groundbreaking, open access volume analyses and compares data practices across several fields through the analysis of specific cases of data journeys. It brings together leading scholars in the philosophy, history and social studies of science to achieve two goals: tracking the travel of data across different spaces, times and domains of research practice; and documenting how such journeys affect the use of data as evidence and the knowledge being produced. The volume captures the opportunities, challenges and concerns involved in making data move from the sites in which they are originally produced to sites where they can be integrated with other data, analysed and re-used for a variety of purposes. The in-depth study of data journeys provides the necessary ground to examine disciplinary, geographical and historical differences and similarities in data management, processing and interpretation, thus identifying the key conditions of possibility for the widespread data sharing associated with Big and Open Data. The chapters are ordered in sections that broadly correspond to different stages of the journeys of data, from their generation to the legitimisation of their use for specific purposes. Additionally, the preface to the volume provides a variety of alternative "roadmaps" aimed to serve the different interests and entry points of readers; and the introduction provides a substantive overview of what data journeys can teach about the methods and epistemology of research.