Preparing MethodBox for National Service

这是一项提议，旨在提供一个新的在线系统，将不同的研究人员聚集在一起，分享他们的专业知识，共同研究复杂的社会问题。重要的是让不同的学科合作，因为每个学科都有不同的优势和劣势。例如，研究肥胖的社会因素的社会科学家可能对如何衡量社会经济状况有很好的了解，而流行病学家可能对是否使用体重指数或腰臀比作为肥胖的衡量标准有补充知识。甚至在社会科学中也有不同的学科，例如，那些更熟悉定性研究方法而不是定量研究方法的学科，反之亦然--两种方法的结合将创造出更丰富的社会问题研究图景。我们已经在通过组合使用以下几种方法来解决这个问题：1)研究社会科学家和健康科学家使用信息进行研究的方式；2)构建基于网络浏览器的软件，使来自不同背景的研究人员更容易为他们的研究问题找到合适的数据-通过社交网络相互支持--比如科学家的Facebook。该系统的原型名为MethodBox，可在www.Medicbox.org上找到。对原型的研究表明，它在各种背景的用户中非常受欢迎。通过检查人们使用该系统的方式，我们可以看到它可以进一步发展：从一个帮助人们找到他们正在寻找的数据的简单系统，转变为一个更复杂的系统，它可以提高人们对研究人员可能没有考虑过的数据和方法的认识。通过利用研究人员与数据集以及彼此在线互动的方式，这种意识可能会以新的方式提高。就像购物网站亚马逊一样，用户可能会被提示“其他选择了你的数据项的研究人员也选择了这些项……”。随着科学知识的增长，这一点尤其重要，因为对于研究人员来说，在开始研究之前阅读所有相关论文变得不太现实--例如，上个月发表了2000多篇关于肥胖的新论文。通过持续努力，在最初的eScience Node项目的资助期之后，方法盒可以准备好供国家数据服务使用。这项提案寻求可持续发展资金，以便经济和社会数据服务处和英国数据档案馆能够有一种可靠的社交联网方式，让用户可以访问归档数据并分享专业知识。在相同水平的数据服务投资中，方法盒很可能会释放更多的研究成果，因为用户拥有了一种相互支持的新工具。因此，对这个项目的投资将使数据服务方面的大笔投资成倍增加。这项提议与英国研究委员会最近一份报告呼吁的“电子基础设施”改革直接一致。

This is a proposal to deliver a new on-line system for bringing different researchers together to share their expertise and work together on complex social problems. It is important to have different disciplines working together because individual disciplines have different strengths and weaknesses. For example a Social Scientist studying social factors in obesity may have excellent knowledge of how to measure socio-economic status whereas an Epidemiologist may have complementary knowledge about whether to use Body Mass Index or waist-to-hip ratio as the measure of obesity. Even within the Social Sciences there are different disciplines, for example those more familiar with qualitative than quantitative research methods, and vice versa - when a mixture of the two approaches would create a richer picture of the social problem being studied.We are already working on this problem by using a combination of: 1) studying the way Social Scientists and Health Scientists use information for research; and 2) building web-browser based software to make it easier for researchers from different backgrounds to find the right data for their research question - supporting one another through social networks -like 'Facebook for Scientists'. The prototype of this system is called MethodBox and can be found at www.methodbox.org. Studies of the prototype have shown it is very popular with users from a wide range of backgrounds. By examining the way people use the system we can see that it could be developed further: moving from a simple system to help people find the data they are looking for to a more complex system that raises awareness of data and methods the researcher may not have considered. This awareness might be raised in new ways by harnessing the way researchers interact with datasets and with one another on-line. Like the shopping website Amazon, a user might be prompted "other researchers who selected your data items also selected these items...". This is particularly important with the growth in scientific knowledge because it is becoming less realistic for a researcher to have read all relevant papers before they start their research - for example last month over two thousand new papers were published on obesity.With a sustained effort, beyond the funding period of the initial eScience Node project, MethodBox could be made ready for the national data services to use. This proposal seeks that sustainability funding so the Economic and Social Data Service and the UK Data Archive can have a reliable socially networked way that users can access archived data and share expertise. It is likely that MethodBox can release more research from the same level of investment in data services because users have a new facility for supporting one another. So investing in this project will multiply the large investments in data services. This proposal is directly in line with the "e-Infrastructure" changes that a recent report across the UK Research Councils called for.