CODATA Committee on Data for Science &

Technology of

The International Council for Science (ICSU)

Krishan Lal

National Physical Laboratory

New Delhi

Strategies for Open and Permanent Access to Scientific Information in Latin America: Health and Environment Information for Sustainable Development, Atibaia, Sao Paulo, 8-10 May 2007

ICSU Committee on Data for Science and Technology -

CODATA

Objectives

Current Activities

Challenges and Opportunities

CODATA’s Mission

To strengthen international science for the benefit of society by promoting improved scientific and technical data management

and use

• An Interdisciplinary scientific committee of ICSUhttp://www.icsu.org

• Established in 1966 – Was born at Bombay (Mumbai) India

• Moved to France 1975

• An independent legal organization, which works inclose collaboration with ICSU and the ICSU family

• First General Assembly was held in 1968

ICSU Committee on Data for Science and Technology – CODATA

General Information

ICSU Committee on Data for Science and Technology –

CODATAGeneral Information

•Headquarters at 51, Blvd de Montmorency, 75016 Paris; Executive Director- Kathleen Cass

•Web site: http://www.codata.org

•Data Science Journalhttp://dsj.codataweb.org

CODATA is a non governmental organization 24 Member Countries

15 International Scientific Unions as Members

4 Co-opted Scientific Organizations

13 Supporting Organizations (Industry, Government and Academia)

ICSU Committee on Data for Science and Technology – CODATA

General Information

Member Countries

• Brazil• Cameroon• Canada• Chinese Academy of

Sciences, Beijing• Chinese Academy located in

Taipei• Czech Republic• France*• Georgia• Germany*• India• Indonesia• Ireland* Associate Member

• Israel• Italy• Japan• Korea• Nigeria• Poland• Russia• Senegal• South Africa• Thailand• Ukraine• USA

CODATA Achieves its Mission through:

• Task Groups

• National Member Activities

• Participation in Important International Initiatives, e.g. WSIS

• Organizes Biennial International Conferences

• CODATA Electronic Data Science Journal

• Publications

• Workshops

• Studies and Reports

• Co-operation and Liaison with Other Scientific Organizations

Publications

• A large number of Monographs and other documents have been published (Springer).

• Currently the Data Science Journal is being published electronically, courtesy Japanese e-platform.

Recognition of Outstanding Contributions

• Outstanding contributions in data science are being recognized by the biennial CODATA Prize.

• Canadian CODATA National Committee has shown exemplary initiative to sponsor young researchers to CODATA International Conferences.

Preparatory Phase: Geneva, Dec 2003

Final Phase: Tunis, November 2005

In December 2003, more than 172 countries participated in the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) at Geneva

WSIS – The First PhaseCulmination in Geneva

In collaboration with ICSU and UNESCO, it held an International Workshop in UNESCO in March 2003 on “The Role of Science in the Information Society”

A nine point Agenda for Action came from this Workshop

Declaration of Principles and Plan of ActionAdopted by 175 countries

Paragraph 7:

“Science has a central role in the development of the Information Society.”

Article 10 of the Agenda for Action: Emphasis on “Access to Information and Knowledge,” and

Article 23 recognizes the important role of “e-Science.”

WSIS First Phase:

Geneva, December 2003

Major CODATA activities between Geneva (2003) and Tunis (2005)

• Special Session at 19th International Conference of CODATA, Nov 2004, Berlin

• International Workshop on “Creating the Information Commons for e-Science: Toward Institutional Policies and Guidelines for Action” Paris, 1-2 Sep 2005

• Three Sessions at the World Summit on Information Society, Tunis, November 2005

ICSU,ICSTI, INASP, UNESCO, US National Academy of Sciences,TWAS, and in collaboration of the OECD

Partners

A Significant Achievement

Helped in firming up the new initiative on Global Information Commons for Science after discussions from legal, economic and other perspectives

President, CODATA, Professor Shuichi President, CODATA, Professor Shuichi Iwata, reported in the Main Plenary Session Iwata, reported in the Main Plenary Session of the Summit:of the Summit:

Launching of a new initiative to create the Global Information Commons for Science

Professor Shuichi, President CODATA

addressing the Eighth Plenary Session of theWorld Summit on the Information Society, 18 November 2005 , Tunis

Photograph by Prof Liu Chuang

““Science helped to create the Science helped to create the Information Society—it can now help Information Society—it can now help extend that society to all.”extend that society to all.”

Iwata, S., and R.S. Chen. 2005. Science and the Digital Divide (editorial). Science 310 (5747, 21 October): 405.

• CODATA has the potential to serve with other organizations as a vehicle of development in the least developed regions, particularly in increasing the quality and spread of education.

• There is a great scope in integrating traditional knowledge base with the main stream in a transparent and ethical manner.

 

Challenges Facing CODATAChallenges Facing CODATA

CODATA Task Groups

• Access to Biological Collection Data

• Anthropometric Data and Engineering

• Comprehensive Information System on Natural Disaster Mitigation

• Data Sources in Asian and Oceanic Countries

• Data Sources for Sustainable Development in SADC Countries

• Exchangeable Materials Data Representation to Support Scientific Research and Education

• Fundamental Constants

• Gas Hydrates

• Global Species Data Networks

• Polar Year Data Policy and Management

• Preservation of and Access to S&T Data in Developing Countries

Scientific Unions• International Astronomical

Union

• International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry

• International Union of Pure and Applied Physics

• International Union of Biological Sciences

• International Geographical Union

• International Union of Crystallography

• International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

• International Union of Geological Sciences

• International Union of Psychological Science

• International Union of Pure and Applied Biophysics

• International Union of Nutritional Sciences

• International Union of Pharmacology

• International Union of Immunological Societies

• International Union of Microbiological Societies

• International Union of Soil Scientists

Co-opted Organizations

• ICSU Panel on World Data Centers

• Federation of Astronomical and Geophysical Services

• International Council for Scientific and Technical Information

• World Federation for Culture Collections

Supporting Organizations

• Defense Technical Information

• Springer-Verlag

• All Russian Institute of Scientific and Technical Information

• Chemical Abstracts Services

• Fachinformationszentrum Chemie, Gmbh

• Japan association for International Chemical Information

• National Library of Medicine

• Design Institute for Physical Property Data (DIPPR) American Institute for Chemical Engineers

• Japan Society of Information and Knowledge

• Protein Data Bank

• Protein Information Resources

• Russian Research Centre for Standardization, Information and Certification of Materials (VNITS SMV)

• Stroyteks

CODATA Data Science Journal

• A peer-reviewed electronic journal

• Publishing papers on the management of data and databases in Science and Technology

• The scope of the journal includes descriptions of data systems, their publication on the internet, applications and legal issues

• All of the Sciences are covered, including the Physical

Sciences, Engineering, the Geosciences and the Biosciences, along with Agriculture and the Medical Science.

http://dsj.codataweb.org/

Collaboration With International Organizations

(A Sample)

• International Council for Science (ICSU)

• UNESCO

• Org. of Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD)

• Global Biodiversity Information Framework (GBIF)

• Global Earth Observation Systems of Systems (GEOSS)

• International Association of Networking Publications (INASP)

• International Council for Scientific and Technical Information (ICSTI)

• Science Commons

How Do We Measure Our Success?

Are our activities and/or the issues we think are important highlighted in publications outside of CODATA publications ?

Yes

For more details see: http://www.codata.org/press.html

Would You Think Of Joining CODATA?

Only you can answer that…..

Statistical Data

Scientific Publications: Indian Scenario

Scientific Output

•Scientific Journals Published from India ~ 12,000•Technical Reports > 8,000•Ph. D. Thesis (2001-02) > 11,400

•PatentsFiled ~8,400 (2000-01)Granted >1300

Rankings in Terms of Research PapersAll Countries and All Fields

CountryPapers Citations

Citations

Per paper

Total Rank* Total Rank* Total Rank*

USA 2,758,037 1 34.5 106 1 12.45 6

Japan 699,840 2 4.9 106 4 7.03 39

Germany 632,261 3 5.8 106 3 8.64 21

India 184,086 13 0.6 106 21 3.24 119

*Rank Among ALL Countries in terms of number of papers.Source: ESI (January 1, 1994 – August 31, 2004)

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http://www.ncl-india.org/ncim/

http://patinfo.nic.in/

http://203.200.90.6/tkdl/LangDefault/common/Home.asp?GL=Eng

http://unicat.inflibnet.ac.in/econ/mindex.htm

http://202.54.99.7/ejournal/ejournalhome1.htm

Thank You

Dhanyavad