Data-intensive research in physics: challenges and perspectives

Abstract

Raman Research Institute (RRI) in recent years has been engaged in data-intensive research. The paper aims to understand the challenges faced by graduate students and their perspectives in data-intensive research at RRI regarding datatypes; collection methods; storage and access; data processing; legal and ethical issues. Questionnaire survey method and information extraction from ETD repository of RRI were used for data collection. Graduate students have expressed their desire for a better technical infrastructure, and need for training courses on different aspects of data related research and acquisition of data processing software. Observations in this study indicate that researchers are not well informed about some of the social issues associated with data and research such as legal aspects, ethical issues, plagiarism, data citation attributions, etc,. The study recommends steps to empower research students to handle the challenges in data-intensive research.