MRD-GW: Gravitational Waves
Report on Managing Research Data for Gravitational Wave Astronomy:
JISC Final Report:
Big science data is different: it comes in large volumes, and it is shared and exploited in ways which may differ from other disciplines. This project has explored these differences using as a case-study Gravitational Wave data generated by the
LSC, and has produced a report and recommendations intended to be useful variously to JISC, the funding council (STFC) and the
LSC community.
In Sect. 1 we define what we mean by ‘big science’, describe the overall data culture there, laying stress on how it necessarily or contingently differs from other disciplines.
In Sect. 2 we discuss the benefits of a formal data-preservation strategy, and the cases for open data and for well-preserved data that follow from that. This leads to our recommendations that, in essence, funders should adopt rather light- touch prescriptions regarding data preservation planning: normal data management practice, in the areas under study, corresponds to notably good practice in most other areas, so that the only change we suggest is to make this planning more formal, which makes it more easily auditable, and more amenable to constructive criticism.
In Sect. 3 we briefly discuss the LIGO data management plan, and pull together whatever information is available on the estimation of digital preservation costs.
The report is informed, throughout, by the OAIS reference model for an open archive. Some of the report’s findings and conclusions were summarised in <
http://arxiv.org/abs/1103.2318>
Project Staff
Project Team
- Norman Gray, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Glasgow
Project Manager
- Graham Woan, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Glasgow
- Tobia Carozzi, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Glasgow