Dataset

What is a dataset?

To improve the understanding of the material presented in this section, we should provide a clear definition of what a dataset is. There are many definitions in the current literature, but all of them agree on the main concept which defines a dataset as a collection of related items.([1], [2], [3])

For our course and in the SciCat world, the definition that we abide by is the following one:

Dataset

A Dataset is a collection of multi-modal items which:

• share a common source

• were collected for a specific purpose,

• describe an individual event or a series of linked events or a whole experiment,

• pertains to the same experimental data collection.

A dataset might contain one or more files and must have a set of descriptors that, according to the current standards, are called metadata which help users in finding the dataset itself.

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[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_set
[2]https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/dataset
[3]https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/definition/data-set