Scientific Data Disappears At Alarming Rate, 80% Lost In Two Decades

cold fjord writes "UPI reports, 'Eighty percent of scientific data are lost within two decades, disappearing into old email addresses and obsolete storage devices, a Canadian study (abstract, article paywalled) indicated. The finding comes from a study tracking the accessibility of scientific data over time, conducted at the University of British Columbia. Researchers attempted to collect original research data from a random set of 516 studies published between 1991 and 2011. While all data sets were available two years after publication, the odds of obtaining the underlying data dropped by 17 per cent per year after that, they reported. "Publicly funded science generates an extraordinary amount of data each year," UBC visiting scholar Tim Vines said. "Much of these data are unique to a time and place, and is thus irreplaceable, and many other data sets are expensive to regenerate.' — More at The Vancouver Sun and Smithsonian."

Comments

And in 20 years...

[Anonymous Coward]

And in 20 years, these results too shall be lost.

Re:And in 20 years...

[queazocotal]

That's not the point.
The actual published results - even if published in an obscure journal tend to stick around _much_ more.

Even old journals which go out of publication get their archives and the rights to distribute them bought - as there is some small amount of value there, in addition to the copies in the various reference libraries around the world.

The problem is that if you are wondering about that graph on page 14 of the paper that the whole paper rests on, you can't get the original data to recreate that graph.

This is a major problem because the only way to check that graph is now to redo the whole experiment.

Concerning...

[AdamColley]

Trying to ignore that a paper about the unavailability of scientific data is locked behind a paywall.

This is nothing new though, I do occasional conversion from ancient data formats, people need to pay better attention, imagine trying to read an 8" CP/M floppy today.

As libraries move to digital storage rather than the dead tree that's been fine for thousands of years they are inviting a catastrophe, possibly only one well aimed solar mass ejection from massive data loss.

Re:Concerning...

[Eunuchswear]

Digital data can be easily copied and archived

Can be. But mostly isn't.

Re:Concerning...

[Lisias]

Wishful thinking.

Let's make a deal: *first*, the gene therapy works. *THEN* we assume we can afford to lose the data the grandparent talks about.