Investigation of DBMS (Data Base Management Systems) for Use in a Research Environment.

Abstract

This thesis is an investigative study on whether a data base management system has a place in a research environment. The study concentrated on the use of large social science data sets. The following topics were examined: (1) how social science data sets are used in a research environment; (2) the data usage and need of an existing research institution (The Rand Corporation); (3) the differences between research and business applications; (4) the possible DBMS configurations within a research environment; (5) the opinions of Rand computer users when rating importance of DBMS features; and (6) evaluation of commercial DBMS for use in a research environment. Conventional DBMS have been very successful with business/corporate data bases, but DBMS are not widely used with research data bases. There are significant differences between the business and research data management needs. These include different retrieval and update specifications, the need for statistical routines, and less financial data base support. Much of research analysis requires the use of statistical procedures. Hence, a DBMS configuration within a research environment must include some access to statistical procedures. Given these reguirements, there are a few commercial DBMS which could be considered for a research environment. Additional keywords: Computer program. (Author)

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Feb 01, 1985
Accession Number
ADA154862

Entities

People

  • P. N. Rosenfeld

Organizations

  • RAND Corporation

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Application Software
  • Computer Programming
  • Computer Programs
  • Computer Science
  • Computers
  • Database Management Systems
  • Databases
  • Information Retrieval
  • Information Science
  • Information Systems
  • Programming Languages
  • Social Sciences
  • Standards
  • Statistical Analysis
  • Statistics
  • Surveys

Fields of Study

  • Computer science

Readers

  • Database Systems and Applications
  • Economics
  • Technical Research and Report Writing.