Let's Put the Science in eScience

The underlying premise behind eScience is that computational methods and data-driven approaches can contribute to scientific discovery on a par with, or even superior to, traditional experimental methods; that the combination of computers, software, and extant data collections are the modern equivalent to the scientific instruments that have led to our understanding of fundamental laws in physics, chemistry, biology, and other domains. However, a robust methodology for making the results of eScience activities “scientific” is lacking, with significant consequences. In this brief paper we propose a shift in perspective as to what it means to create an eScience-based result and how the scientific validity of eScience experiments might be improved.