Integration of Data and Publications - Alliance for Permanent Access

Report on Integration of Data and Publications Grant Agreement no.: 261530
1.4. The Data Publication Pyramid
Microsoft researcher Jim Gray is an often quoted source on the way literature and data
would become more interrelated. He foresaw ways (graph 5) in which the e-environment
would make it so much easier to move from the literature to data and back:
The Jim Gray Pyramid on e-science
Literature
Derived and Recombined
Data
Raw Data
Graph 6, Source Jim Gray on e-science 7 : Publications are only the tip of the iceberg
For the purpose of this report, we endeavor to adapt the Jim Gray Pyramid slightly and
introduce our own so-called Data Publication Pyramid. Four years after Jim Gray
expressed his thoughts, we see a new wave of practices emerge where the literature is in
fact integrating literature and data or at least making its best attempts. This Data
Publication Pyramid (graph 1) aims to show the different manifestations that data can
undergo when published within or in the context of publications, or even when not
published at all (but remaining in drawers and on disks of the institute):
7 http://research.microsoft.com/enus/collaboration/fourthparadigm/4th_paradigm_book_jim_gray_transcript.pdf
Opportunities for Data Exchange (ODE) –www.ode-project.eu 18