IT University of Copenhagen, Rued Langgaards Vej 7, DK-2300 Copenhagen S, Denmark.
Acta Vet Scand. 2011;53 Suppl 1(Suppl 1):S2. doi: 10.1186/1751-0147-53-S1-S2. Epub 2011 Jun 20.
Research relies on ever larger amounts of data from experiments, automated production equipment, questionnaries, times series such as weather records, and so on. A major task in science is to combine, process and analyse such data to obtain evidence of patterns and correlations.Most research data are on digital form, which in principle ensures easy processing and analysis, easy long-term preservation, and easy reuse in future research, perhaps in entirely unanticipated ways. However, in practice, obstacles such as incompatible or undocumented data formats, poor data quality and lack of familiarity with current technology prevent researchers from making full use of available data.This paper argues that relational databases are excellent tools for veterinary research and animal production; provides a small example to introduce basic database concepts; and points out some concerns that must be addressed when organizing data for research purposes.
研究依赖于越来越多的实验数据、自动化生产设备、问卷、天气记录等时间序列。科学的一个主要任务是组合、处理和分析这些数据，以获得模式和相关性的证据。大多数研究数据都是数字形式的，这从原则上确保了易于处理和分析、易于长期保存以及在未来的研究中以全新的方式进行重复使用。然而，在实践中，诸如不兼容或无文档记录的数据格式、较差的数据质量以及对当前技术的不熟悉等障碍，使得研究人员无法充分利用现有数据。本文认为关系数据库是兽医研究和动物生产的优秀工具；提供了一个小示例来介绍基本的数据库概念；并指出了在为研究目的组织数据时必须解决的一些问题。
