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

在许多科学领域中，数据密集型研究的一个共同挑战是难以以支持大规模比较分析的方式汇集数据。在动物行为的实地研究中，调查人员很少能把注意力集中在一个或几个物种和地点上。行为科学的比较研究也受到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的阻碍。该项目将利用数据库专家、软件开发人员和实地灵长类动物学家的集体经验，解决这些挑战，为行为研究开发策略和技术，选择这个社区是因为它对这些问题有浓厚的兴趣。这个项目有四个关键目标：1。让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。创建和测试数据收集和管理的软件系统，将这些标准付诸实践。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，以帮助行为研究人员将现有数据迁移到这个新系统中。鼓励研究人员和机构图书馆员制定长期存档和管理行为数据的愿景。该项目还将生产数据可视化和分析工具，这将鼓励研究人员将实时可视化和统计反馈纳入他们在实地和实验室的研究。由于现代领域灵长类动物学的多学科性质，该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跨学科的行为研究社区，包括年轻学者和知名学者。它的产品将使这些研究人员能够更快、更有效地收集数据，同时扩大他们的数据的范围和效用，超出他们的直接研究问题。通过研讨会、教程和文档，社区成员将越来越了解数据和设计，这将鼓励更多比较的“大数据”项目，并刺激跨学科的合作。一个有效的行为数据存储库将有助于培养研究人员之间的数据共享文化。通过广泛的在线展示，项目团队将与公众就项目的进展、实地考察、实验室工作和科学实践进行交流。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，以实现各种新颖的目的。最后，由于参与该项目的大多数研究人员都是在美国和国外都有影响力的实地工作者和教育工作者，因此所产生的思想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.