Scientific database and its application system(Draft)

Dr. Yan Baoping
Computer Network Information Center, CAS, P.O. Box 349, Beijing ,China Zip code:100080 (Tel: +86 10 58812201 E-mail: ybp@cnic.cn )

Abstract

CAS, as China’s research center on natural sciences, in the long-term scientific research practice, has produced and accumulated a large amount of scientific data of scientific value and practical meaning through methods of observation, investigation, experiments, and computation, etc. Since the 1980s CAS’ professional databases construction have been started gradually，and become the most comprehensive scientific information servicing system that has the largest amount of information, covering the broadest disciplines, providing the highest levels of services in the country after more than ten years’ construction and development. Scientific database is a data-sharing and data-servicing system that’s concentrative in logic and distributive in physics，forming an integrated scientific and technologic information servicing system from basic database retrieval to professional consultation and decision service. In various institutes in different disciplines, designers of professional databases have set up professional databases by collecting and integrating valuable database resources accumulated during many years’ scientific research.

Since the formal startup of CAS’ informatization-oriented construction program in the 10th five-year plan, the main object and mission of scientific database is to promote the transformation from data to knowledge, improve informatization-oriented scientific research environment, and set up primarily a scientific and technologic information servicing system facing scientific research and society on the basis of continuing to enlarge database resources；The program’s main contents include database construction, standard specification and system platform. Through many years’ efforts of the project organization consisting of expert committee, the office, scientific database center and database-building units，nowadays the project’s tasks of database construction, standard specification, and system platform construction have been over fulfilled, in which super data server system, tape recorder base system and visualization system have been set up and been operating.

As for the respect of application effect and efficiency, scientific database system provides online service for society, supporting scientific research and serving national macro decision and national economy, and there are now more than 100 successful application cases in the past 5 years. Now the project has been incorporated into national scientific data sharing project，and is trying to integrate other IT resources, and constitute an environment facing e-science on the basis of database.

As an important part of informatization-oriented cyber-infrastructure of CAS, a composing part of national scientific database sharing project , as well as one of the exchange and sharing nodes, the scientific database will further improve data resources system and standard specification platform, and service platform, and form an operating and service system, actively take part in national scientific data sharing project, construct national basic science data sharing system, strengthen international exchanges and cooperation, and provide service for recent scientific research and future e-science application.

Keywords：Scientific database; application system; data sevice; standard specification; System platform; data sharing ; database