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What is Data Science?

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Guide to Teaching Data Science

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Abstract

Although many attempts have been made to define data science, such a definition has not yet been reached. One reason for the difficulty to reach a single, consensus definition for data science is its multifaceted nature: it can be described as a science, as a research method, as a discipline, as a workflow, or as a profession. One single definition just cannot capture this diverse essence of data science. In this chapter, we first take an interdisciplinary perspective and review the background for the development of data science (Sect. 2.1). Then we present data science from several perspectives: data science as a science (Sect. 2.2), data science as a research method (Sect. 2.3), data science as a discipline (Sect. 2.4), data science as a workflow (Sect. 2.5), and data science as a profession (Sect. 2.6). We conclude by highlighting three main characteristics of data science: interdisciplinarity, learner diversity, and its research-oriented nature (Sect. 2.7).

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Earth image was originally posted to Flickr by DonkeyHotey at https://flickr.com/photos/47422005@N04/5679642883. It was reviewed on 4 December 2020 by FlickreviewR 2 and was confirmed to be licensed under the terms of the cc-by-2.0.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Education in Science and Technology, Technion—Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel

    Orit Hazzan & Koby Mike

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  1. Orit Hazzan
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  2. Koby Mike
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Correspondence to Orit Hazzan .

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Hazzan, O., Mike, K. (2023). What is Data Science?. In: Guide to Teaching Data Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-24758-3_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-24758-3_2

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-031-24757-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-24758-3

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