Board on Research Data and Information

数字革命为管理和使用所有类型的研究（和其他）数据和信息创造了新的机会。科学研究的大多数领域现在都是数据驱动的，这在研究事业中产生了广泛的定量和定性改进。各种形式的研究成果交流，包括正式的和非正式的，也有所增加和改进。此外，由于新的基于计算机和网络的交流和协作模式的出现，已建立的科学和工程领域的日常实践正在发生变化。虽然技术系统已经完成了从印刷到数字媒体的转变，但社会系统还远远没有合理化，也没有进行同样有效的转变。技术变革的速度为有效和高效地利用这些数字研究资源带来了许多挑战。许多来自印刷时代的组织和法律模式已经转移到数字网络环境中，而没有充分调整在线研究能力的质量差异。学术交流和知识生产的新模式正在出现，但人们对它们的理解仍然很差，或者没有充分建立和利用。尽管自动化的知识生产和传播有望从根本上提高我们从大量可用的数字数据和信息中提取、整合和利用新知识的能力，但仍然存在许多障碍。与此同时，诸如质量保证、元数据生成和维护、长期数字保存以及研究数据和信息活动的评估方法等老问题不仅在许多情况下没有得到成功解决，而且新兴技术和应用还增加了新的维度和关注。从数字知识资源（特别是在线知识资源）的投资中获得更大回报的相关政策和实践都需要持续的关注、分析和建议。联邦机构每年总共投入数十亿美元的公共资金，用于生产或外部资助产生庞大而多样的数据流，作为研究企业的投入。同样，他们也生产或资助创造了越来越多的科学信息，包括同行评审和灰色文献，这些信息体现了许多研究成果。作为这些数字研究资产的国家管理者或资助者，他们在不断改善这些资产的管理、政策和利用方面有着重要的利益。然而，管理、保存、传播和重用数据和信息资源的投资和政策滞后，而且通常被认为是不够的。在这方面，研究系统的不同层次产生了许多未解决的问题，影响了既定的研究战略和优先事项。它们不仅涉及科学和技术因素，还涉及制度、经济、法律和社会文化方面。最普遍的功能失调发生在跨学科、部门间和国际层面以及公私伙伴关系中。成功建立管理和使用数字知识资源的关系的问题可能会对我们的国家研究和创新系统、经济竞争力和更大的社会福利产生重大的负面影响，例如结构性效率低下和机会成本损失。因为研究数据和信息对科学和国家的进步非常重要？为了提高美国在知识经济中的竞争力，这些问题需要得到我们国家研究企业的各种利益相关者的充分理解，包括政府、学术界和工业界的研究团体，行政当局和国会的研究决策者和管理者，以及最终支持这些活动并从其提高的效率中获益的公众。拟议中的研究数据和信息委员会将通过NRC建立一个新的跨学科机制和焦点，以便更好地了解和了解这些问题，为赞助者增加价值。这些领域的目标和优先事项，以及帮助提高联邦机构的回报？在预算日益紧张的情况下进行投资。

The digital revolution has created new opportunities in the management and use of all types of research (and other) data and information. Most areas of scientific research are now data-driven and this has produced a broad range of quantitative and qualitative improvements in the research enterprise. The communication of research results in myriad forms, both formal and informal, has also increased and improved. Moreover, the day-to-day practices of the established fields of science and engineering are changing in response to the emergence of new computer- and network-based modes of communication and collaboration. While the technical systems have completed the shift from print to digital media, the social systems are far from rationalized and have not made a similarly effective transformation. The rate of technological change has created many challenges in the effective and efficient exploitation of those digital research resources. Many of the organizational and legal models from the print era have been transferred to the digital network context without adjusting sufficiently for the qualitatively different research capabilities online. New models of scholarly exchange and knowledge production are emerging, but they are still poorly understood or not fully established and utilized. Although automated knowledge production and diffusion promise radical improvements to our capacity to extract, integrate, and exploit new knowledge from the vast stores of available digital data and information, many roadblocks remain. At the same time, old endemic problems such as quality assurance, metadata generation and maintenance, long-term digital preservation, and assessment methodologies for research data and information activities not only have not been addressed successfully in many cases, but new dimensions and concerns have been added by emerging technologies and applications. Both the policies and practices associated with deriving greater returns from the investments in digital knowledge resources, especially online, require sustained focus, analysis, and advice.The federal agencies together make public investments of many billions of dollars per year in producing or externally funding the generation of huge and diverse data streams as inputs into the research enterprise. They similarly produce or fund the creation of ever-increasing volumes of scientific information,both peer-reviewed and gray literature, that embodies the results of much of the research output. As the nation's stewards or funders of these digital research assets, they have a major stake in continually improving their management, policies, and utilization. However, the investments and policies for managing, preserving, disseminating, and reusing the data and information resources are lagging and are generally perceived to be inadequate. Many unresolved issues arise at the different levels of the research system in this regard, affecting established research strategies and priorities. They involve not just scientific and technical elements, but institutional, economic, legal, and socio-cultural aspects. The most pervasive dysfunctions occur at the interdisciplinary, inter-sectoral, and international levels, and in public-private partnerships. The problems in successfully forging relationships for managing and using digital knowledge resources can have significant negative effects, such as structural inefficiencies and lost opportunity costs, on our national research and innovation systems, economic competitiveness, and the greater social welfare.Because research data and information are of great importance to the progress of science and the nation?s competitiveness in the knowledge-based economy, these issues need to be well understood by the various stakeholders in our nation's research enterprise, including the research communities in government, academia, and industry, research policymakers and managers in the Administration and Congress, and ultimately the public that both supports these activities and the benefits from their improved effectiveness. Acting through the NRC, the proposed Board on Research Data and Information would establish a new interdisciplinary mechanism and focal point for bringing greater understanding and visibility to these issues, for adding value to the sponsors? objectives and priorities in these areas, and for helping to improve returns on the federal agencies? investments in a time of increasingly constrained budgets.