SciDataCon2016 took place on 11-13 September 2016 at the Sheraton Denver Downtown Hotel, Denver, Colorado, USA. It was part of International Data Week, 11-16 September 2016, convened by CODATA, the ICSU World Data System and the Research Data Alliance. SciDataCon2016 sought to advance the frontiers of data in all areas of research, acknowledging that the most significant contemporary research challenges— including those reaching across disciplines—cannot be properly addressed without due attention to data-related issues. These include policy frameworks, data quality and interoperability, long-term stewardship of data, and the research skills, technologies, and infrastructures required by increasingly data-intensive research. They also include frontier challenges for data science: e.g. fundamental research questions relating to data integration, analysis of complex systems and models, epistemology and ethics in relation to Big Data, etc. The transformative effect of the data revolution should be examined from the perspective of all fields of research, and its relationship to broader societal developments and to data-driven innovation scrutinised. These issues create a multi-faceted challenge which cannot be tackled without expertise drawn across disciplines and diverse roles in the research community, stating nationally, but moving internationally and globally, for the benefit of us all.
Papers from SciDataCon 2016, part of International Data Week, Denver, Colorado now available in the CODATA Data Science Journal