Enabling Quantitative Data Analysis on Cyberinfrastructures and Grids

Citation

Tan KLL, Lambert P, Gayle V & Turner KJ (2007) Enabling Quantitative Data Analysis on Cyberinfrastructures and Grids. In: Olson G & Procter R (eds.) Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on e-Social Science. Third International Conference on e-Social Science, Ann Arbor, Michigan, US, 07.10.2007-09.10.2007. Manchester: The National Centre for E-Science, pp. III.20-III.31. http://ess.si.umich.edu/papers.htm

Abstract
The social, behavioral and economic sciences (SBEs) do not currently benefit from a unified workflow environment for the quantitative analysis of social survey data. Some unified models integrating data storage, data management and data analysis do exist, for example the NESSTAR, IPUMS and LIS projects. However all of these services are focused on a limited number of data resources and functionalities. The Cyberinfrastructure could be exploited to develop and support a more generic workflow environment. In this paper, we build upon earlier work in providing a specialist data access service to social scientists (the GEODE project), to outline a proposed framework for a generic quantitative social science infrastructural service based on open standards.