Science and data science

Edited by Peter J. Bickel, University of California, Berkeley, CA, and approved June 16, 2017 (received for review March 15, 2017)
August 7, 2017
114 (33) 8689-8692

Abstract

Data science has attracted a lot of attention, promising to turn vast amounts of data into useful predictions and insights. In this article, we ask why scientists should care about data science. To answer, we discuss data science from three perspectives: statistical, computational, and human. Although each of the three is a critical component of data science, we argue that the effective combination of all three components is the essence of what data science is about.

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Information & Authors

Information

Published in

The cover image for PNAS Vol.114; No.33
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Vol. 114 | No. 33
August 15, 2017
PubMed: 28784795

Classifications

Submission history

Published online: August 7, 2017
Published in issue: August 15, 2017

Keywords

  1. data science
  2. statistics
  3. machine learning

Notes

This article is a PNAS Direct Submission.

Authors

Affiliations

David M. Blei1 [email protected]
Department of Computer Science, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027;
Department of Statistics, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027;
Data Science Institute, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027;
Padhraic Smyth
Department of Computer Science, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697;
Department of Statistics, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697

Notes

1
To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: [email protected].
Author contributions: D.M.B. and P.S. wrote the paper.

Competing Interests

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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    Science and data science
    Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
    • Vol. 114
    • No. 33
    • pp. 8661-E7031

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