COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: BCC: Ethoinformatics: Developing Data Services and a Standard "Etho-Grammar" for Behavioral Research

在许多科学领域进行数据密集型研究的一个共同挑战是，难以以支持广泛比较分析的方式汇集数据。这当然适用于动物行为的实地研究，调查人员很少能专注于一个或几个以上的物种和地点。行为科学中的比较研究也因研究小组缺乏标准和透明度，以及缺乏收集和管理行为数据的现代工具和技术而受到阻碍。这个项目将利用数据库专家、软件开发人员和现场灵长类动物学家的集体经验来解决这些挑战，开发用于行为研究的策略和技术，这个社区之所以被选中，是因为它对这些问题有着浓厚的兴趣。这个项目有四个关键目标：1.让现场灵长类动物学家和数据库专家参与开发涵盖学科多样性的开放数据标准。创建和测试将这些标准付诸实施的数据收集和管理软件系统。该系统将很容易定制，并能够在各种移动设备上运行。此外，它的计划和软件源代码将公开发布，供其他人审查、使用和改进。开发额外的软件工具，帮助行为研究人员迁移现有数据，以便与这一新系统一起工作。该项目还将开发数据可视化和分析工具，鼓励研究人员将实时视觉和统计反馈纳入他们在实地和实验室的研究中。由于现代灵长类动物学的多学科性质，这一框架有望广泛适用于来自社会、行为、经济和自然科学的研究人员。该项目旨在建立一个包括初级和成熟学者在内的行为研究人员的跨学科社区。它的产品将使这些研究人员能够更快、更有效地收集数据，同时扩大他们数据的范围和用途，超越他们直接的研究问题。通过研讨会、教程和文档，社区成员将变得越来越精通数据和设计，这将鼓励更多可比较的“大数据”项目，并促进跨学科的合作。行为数据的有效储存库将有助于在研究人员之间培养数据共享的文化。通过广泛的在线展示，项目团队将与公众交流这一项目的进展情况，以及田野工作、实验室工作和一般科学的实践。该项目的开放性将使公众能够自由地采用和修改该项目的任何产品，用于不同的和新颖的目的。最后，由于参与该项目的大多数研究人员是在美国和国外都有影响力的实地工作者和教育工作者，因此产生的想法和工具将得到广泛传播，为教育、推广和社区参与科学提供机会。

A common challenge of data-intensive research in many scientific fields is the difficulty of pooling data in ways that support broad-scale comparative analysis. This is certainly the case for field studies of animal behavior, where investigators can seldom focus on more than one or a few species and locales. Comparative research in the behavioral sciences is also hindered by a lack of standards and transparency across research groups as well as a shortage of modern tools and technologies for collecting and managing behavioral data. This project will address these challenges developing strategies and technologies for behavioral research using the collective experience of database specialists, software developers, and field primatologists, a community chosen because it has a vibrant interest in these issues.There are four key goals to this project:1. To engage field primatologists and database specialists in developing open data standards that encompass the diversity of the discipline.2. To create and test a software system for data collection and management that puts these standards into practice. The system will be easily customized and able to run on a variety of mobile devices. Additionally the plans and software source code for it will be published openly for others to review, use, and improve upon.3. To develop additional software tools that will help behavioral researchers migrate existing data to work with this new system.4. To encourage researchers and institutional librarians to develop a vision for long-term archiving and curation of behavioral data.The project will also produce tools for data visualization and analysis, which should encourage investigators to incorporate real-time visual and statistical feedback into their research in both the field and laboratory. Because of the multidisciplinary nature of modern field primatology, this framework is expected to be broadly applicable to researchers from across the social, behavioral, economic, and natural sciences.This project aims to build an interdisciplinary community of behavioral researchers involving both junior and established scholars. Its products will enable these researchers to collect data more quickly and efficiently while expanding the scope and utility of their data beyond their immediate research questions. Through workshops, tutorials, and documentation, community members will become increasingly data- and design-literate, which will encourage more comparative, "big data" projects and spur collaboration across disciplines. A working repository for behavioral data will help foster a culture of data-sharing among researchers. Through an extensive online presence, the project team will communicate with the public about the progress of this project and about the practice of fieldwork, laboratory work, and science in general. The open nature of the project will enable the public to freely adopt and modify any of this project's products for varied and novel purposes. Finally, because the majority of researchers involved in this project are fieldworkers and educators with influence both in the United States and abroad, the ideas and tools produced will be widely disseminated, providing opportunities for education, outreach, and community participation in science.