"The future lies in Data and an idea"
As the truth about our world need to be looked at ever more critically, data needs to be correct to arrive at the right conclusions, but as time ticks and knowledge moves further ahead, the results and analysis becomes ever more critical in formulating future political and social structural decisions. The analysis and results should be questioned in the light of new knowledge , but without the original data assumptions are at best guesswork and may or may not be correct.
All data should be available to back up any research and kept on open record for further analysis at a later date.
Peer Review helps to reduce mistakes, but are only good for the time it was published not for future analysis, as we see in climate data. All the algorithms in the world cannot replace actual real data.
Agreed. I included my secondary data in the Appendix of my PhD for that reason. I may have the 4.7 million record primary data somewhere, but media, hardware, software and jobs move on rapidly. What is even more worrying is that the context / circumstances surrounding the collection of the (primary) data cannot be resurrected. For example there was an anomaly caused by a single faultily programmed packet-assembler/disassembler in the field which distorted the primary data so much that no reasonable model would fit the national data. This is why it is so important to do the research thoroughly the first time. We only have one window of opportunity and financial support. Fortunately, today DVDs with all the data are standard inserts in the back of thesis-books.
We miss so much by not looking at the raw data. I thing we are doing the same with history. We take the short cut to get what we need from the data and through the rest away. This is what has lead us in false directions in the past and today. Incomplete things can always come up with different conclusions than reality. Most of us only learn part of history and this is why history repeats itself over and over.
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