The Vast Majority of Raw Data From Old Scientific Studies May Now Be Missing

[Valin]

Watts Up With That?:

Anthony Watts

December 20, 2013

 

 

From the people that know how to save and care for things of importance, comes this essay from The Smithsonian:

 

One of the foundations of the scientific method is the reproducibility of results. In a lab anywhere around the world, a researcher should be able to study the same subject as another scientist and reproduce the same data, or analyze the same data and notice the same patterns.

 

This is why the findings of a study published today in Current Biology are so concerning. When a group of researchers tried to email the authors of 516 biological studies published between 1991 and 2011 and ask for the raw data, they were dismayed to find that more 90 percent of the oldest data (from papers written more than 20 years ago) were inaccessible. In total, even including papers published as recently as 2011, they were only able to track down the data for 23 percent.

 

Everybody kind of knows that if you ask a researcher for data from old studies, theyll hem and haw, because they dont know where it is, says Timothy Vines, a zoologist at the University of British Columbia, who led the effort. But there really hadnt ever been systematic estimates of how quickly the data held by authors actually disappears.

 

(Snip)

 

___________________________________________________________

 

Well this is...

A. Disturbing

B. Convenient

[Pepper]

This is problematic @Valin

 

Lots of factors playing a role

Miniscule: a few bad experiments and studies to begin with so why should the researcher post the data so that others can replicate?

You got your study approved, the heck with posterity.

Not being mindful of need to constantly migrate data using valid verified methods, storing data on more permanent formats.

Deterioration of media in the first place. Storing data in formats that are hard to migrate to current technologies.

When is the last time you read data from your 8" TRS-80 diskette or moved data from those DECtapes from your PDP-11 to your 3.5" Windows media? How about those CD-ROMs you left in your VW micro bus and are now ashtrays?

[Pepper]

PS @Valin

 

From two three of the comments at link:

 

RoHa says:
December 20, 2013 at 8:58 pm

One medium that is particularly stable and needs no supporting technology is ink on acid-free paper. We used to have whole buildings just full of bundles of data in this medium. I forget what those places were called. “Librioteks” or something like that.

 

 

John F. Hultquist says:
December 20, 2013 at 7:06 pm

Nothing said above should surprise those that have worked on projects.
Isn’t it funny though that keeping data about important topics is difficult while if someone drunk or naked gets her/his photo on the web it is there forever (or at least a long time)?

 

 

EDITED

 

Sceptical lefty says:
December 21, 2013 at 1:07 am

jorgekafkazar
“You silly people thought this was about Science? Pish-tush! It was all about Publication! Academic publish or perish. Once you’ve published, you’re done. Science had nothing to do with it. Archiving? That’s something they do on another planet.”

 

The above comment is nasty, but pretty well nails it. With the imperative to publish, quantity will inevitably trump quality. It is unreasonable to expect the authors of low-quality papers to leave data (evidence) lying around indefinitely as it increases the likelihood of their eventual exposure.

Genuinely high-quality scientific papers rarely ‘die’ because they are too widely copied. (Nobody mention Nikola Tesla.) If the academic emphasis ever shifts to quality it will be accompanied by a corresponding decrease in the quantity of papers published — and confirmed sightings of flying pigs.

Edited December 24, 2013 by Pepper

[Valin]

PS @Valin

 

From two three of the comments at link:

 

RoHa says:

December 20, 2013 at 8:58 pm

One medium that is particularly stable and needs no supporting technology is ink on acid-free paper. We used to have whole buildings just full of bundles of data in this medium. I forget what those places were called. “Librioteks” or something like that.

Many years ago I was talking to a friend about getting a computer for my darkroom, I could put all the data from negatives and prints in it. (long story short) He handed me a pencil and a sheet of paper and said 'this is easier".

[Pepper]

Was your friend's name Johannes Gutenberg the XVII?

[Valin]

Was your friend's name Johannes Gutenberg the XVII?

Nah. just a technogeek.

 

I have some games for DOS 3.0...windows 95...etc. that are really great...too bad I can no longer play them.