Data-Centric Biology

"Has there been a shift in what "data" means that is key to understanding the future of science? Sabina Leonelli's new book, Data-Centric Biology: A Philosophical Study, argues for an important and fruitful answer outside the comfort zone of many philosophers. Along the way, she also delivers valuable insights into expanding efforts to standardize, automate, and communicate how scientists handle, share, reproduce, interpret, and store data."

-- "Philosophy of Science"
"Going far beyond the epistemic concerns that preoccupy many philosophers, Data-Centric Biology brilliantly shows readers the practices that make data informative and meaningful, the biocurators who carefully attend to data's forms, and the social, economic, and political resources on which our systems of Big Data Sciences depend. Leonelli is a leader in this area of scholarship, commanding a vast comprehensive knowledge of the historical, philosophical, and social studies of the life sciences and the data practices that sustain them."-- "Mike Fortun, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute"
"In Data-Centric Biology: A Philosophical Study, Sabina Leonelli provides the first book-length study of what is novel about data-centric research in the life sciences. . . . Her book is a laudable achievement in integrating insights from a methodologically permissive and pluralistic outlook."-- "Quarterly Review of Biology"
"The dynamic, procedural themes running throughout Leonelli's book usefully shift our philosophical focus from the abstracta of understanding how science works from a frozen perspective to a more useful analysis of how scientists in fact get the job done (when they do) and--more critically--how they might do it better."-- "BJPS Review of Books"
"The first critical book-length study of data centrism in the life sciences and beyond, Data-Centric Biology sheds new and surprising light on the phenomenon of big data. Analytically competent, historically informed, sociologically sensitive, this book is a brilliant and successful demonstration of what bringing together philosophy, history, and social studies of science can achieve."-- "Hans-Joerg Rheinberger, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science"