Assessing the Research Practices of Big Data and Data Science Researchers at the University of Virginia: An Ithaka S+R Local Report

Abstract

This report is an investigation of research practices of Big Data and Data Science Researchers at the University of Virginia (UVA). The study was conducted by a team of staff from the UVA Academic Library and UVA Research Computing (RC). Ithaka S+R, a not-for-profit research organization, oversaw this study, along with comparable studies at 20 other academic institutions. The goal of Ithaka S+R was to understand the resources and services that researchers who use Big Data and Data Science practices need to be successful in their work. Themes include Data Acquisition and Preprocessing; Ethics of Data Handling; Data Analysis and Programming Languages; Compute Infrastructure; Data/Code/Research Sharing; Teaching and Learning; and Advancing the Discipline. Recommendations to support Big Data and Data Science researchers are provided.