Why don't we already have an Integrated Framework for the Publication and Preservation of all Data Products?

TL;DR

Astronomy has established many data management practices, but lacks an integrated framework for publication and preservation of all data products, prompting an exploration of barriers and collaborative solutions.

Contribution

The paper analyzes existing astronomy data practices and discusses potential barriers to creating a comprehensive, integrated data publication and preservation framework.

Findings

Existing astronomy data infrastructure is advanced but fragmented.

No significant technical barriers to integration are identified.

Cultural and commercial factors are not major obstacles.

Abstract

Astronomy has long had a working network of archives supporting the curation of publications and data. The discipline has already created many of the features which perplex other areas of science: (1) data repositories: (supra)national institutes, dedicated to large projects; a culture of user-contributed data; practical experience of long-term data preservation; (2) dataset identifiers: the community has already piloted experiments, knows what can undermine these efforts, and is participating in the development of next-generation standards; (3) citation of datasets in papers: the community has an innovative and expanding infrastructure for the curation of data and bibliographic resources, and through them a community of author s and editors familiar with such electronic publication efforts; as well, it has experimented with next-generation web standards (e.g. the Semantic Web); (4) publisher buy-in: publishers in this area have been willing to innovate within the constraints of their commercial imperatives. What can possibly be missing? Why don't we have an integrated framework for the publication and preservation of all data products already? Are there technical barriers? We don't believe so. Are there cultural or commercial forces inhibiting this? We aren't aware of any. This Birds of a Feather session (BoF) attempted to identify existing barriers to the creation of such a framework, and attempted to identify the parties or groups which can contribute to the creation of a VO-powered data-publishing framework.