Science labs losing data at alarming rate

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Data loss can have a devastating effect on companies that rely on information storage in order to provide a service, which in turn can harm its bottom line and make it less financially viable than before.

But when it comes to science, data loss can literally undo years of work in the blink of an eye. Yet despite the serious consequences, data loss in the field of science still appears to be a severe problem.

A recent study found that around 80 per cent of scientific data is lost within the space of just 20 years, with much of the blame lying with simple flaws such as old email addresses and obsolete storage devices.

Researchers at the University of British Columbia chose a random set of 516 studies published between 1991 and 2001, and found that all data two-year-old papers was still available, but the chances of it still existing for each subsequent year fell by 17 per cent.

The paper, published in Current Biology, claims that this is mainly due to the fact that scientists do not do enough to preserve data and called for journals to begin uploading information onto public archives in order for them to be safely preserved for the future.

Tim Vines, a visiting scholar at the University of British Columbia, said: “Publicly funded science generates an extraordinary amount of data each year.

“Much of this data is unique to a time and place, and is thus irreplaceable, and many other datasets are expensive to regenerate.

“The current system of leaving data with authors means that almost all of it is lost over time, unavailable for validation of the original results or to use for entirely new purposes.”

He added that although most people would expect the findings of a 50-year old paper to be slightly more difficult to find, the fact that almost all datasets are gone within two decades should be considered a surprising finding.

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”. Science labs losing data at alarming rate. December 29, 2013. Storetec.