Credentialing Data Scientists: A Domain Repository Perspective

Abstract:

A career in data science can have many paths: data curation, data analysis, metadata modeling - all of these in different commercial or scientific applications. Can a certification as ‘data scientist’ provide the guarantee that an applicant or candidate for a data science position has just the right skills? How valuable is a ‘generic’ certification as data scientist for an employer looking to fill a data science position? Credentials that are more specific and discipline-oriented may be more valuable to both the employer and the job candidate.

One employment sector for data scientists are the data repositories that provide discipline-specific data services for science communities. Data science positions within domain repositories include a wide range of responsibilities in support of the full data life cycle – from data preservation and curation to development of data models, ontologies, and user interfaces, to development of data analysis and visualization tools to community education and outreach, and require a substantial degree of discipline-specific knowledge of scientific data acquisition and analysis workflows, data quality measures, and data cultures. Can there be certification programs for domain-specific data scientists that help build the urgently needed workforce for the repositories?

The American Geophysical Union has recently started an initiative to develop a program for data science continuing education and data science professional certification for the Earth and space sciences. An Editorial Board has been charged to identify and develop curricula and content for these programs and to provide input and feedback in the implementation of the program. This presentation will report on the progress of this initiative and evaluate its utility for the needs of domain repositories in the Earth and space sciences.