A common challenge of data-intensive research in many scientific fields is the difficulty of pooling data in ways that support broad-scale comparative analysis. This is certainly the case for field studies of animal behavior, where investigators can seldom focus on more than one or a few species and locales. Comparative research in the behavioral sciences is also hindered by a lack of standards and transparency across research groups as well as a shortage of modern tools and technologies for collecting and managing behavioral data. This project will address these challenges developing strategies and technologies for behavioral research using the collective experience of database specialists, software developers, and field primatologists, a community chosen because it has a vibrant interest in these issues.
There are four key goals to this project: 1. To engage field primatologists and database specialists in developing open data standards that encompass the diversity of the discipline. 2. To create and test a software system for data collection and management that puts these standards into practice. The system will be easily customized and able to run on a variety of mobile devices. Additionally the plans and software source code for it will be published openly for others to review, use, and improve upon. 3. To develop additional software tools that will help behavioral researchers migrate existing data to work with this new system. 4. To encourage researchers and institutional librarians to develop a vision for long-term archiving and curation of behavioral data.
The project will also produce tools for data visualization and analysis, which should encourage investigators to incorporate real-time visual and statistical feedback into their research in both the field and laboratory. Because of the multidisciplinary nature of modern field primatology, this framework is expected to be broadly applicable to researchers from across the social, behavioral, economic, and natural sciences.
This project aims to build an interdisciplinary community of behavioral researchers involving both junior and established scholars. Its products will enable these researchers to collect data more quickly and efficiently while expanding the scope and utility of their data beyond their immediate research questions. Through workshops, tutorials, and documentation, community members will become increasingly data- and design-literate, which will encourage more comparative, "big data" projects and spur collaboration across disciplines. A working repository for behavioral data will help foster a culture of data-sharing among researchers. Through an extensive online presence, the project team will communicate with the public about the progress of this project and about the practice of fieldwork, laboratory work, and science in general. The open nature of the project will enable the public to freely adopt and modify any of this project's products for varied and novel purposes. Finally, because the majority of researchers involved in this project are fieldworkers and educators with influence both in the United States and abroad, the ideas and tools produced will be widely disseminated, providing opportunities for education, outreach, and community participation in science.
