[fitsbits] 'Dataset Identifications' postings (digest)

[LC's No-Spam Newsreading account]

On Tue, 23 Mar 2004, Arnold Rots wrote:

> The proposal is to introduce the DS_IDENT keyword as a convention for
> dataset identifiers and to define one particular set of values for
> this keyword - the ones under the autority of the ADS, i.e.,

what does it make them "under the authority of the ADS" ? A specific
agreement between ADS and Observatory archive and/or paper author
and/or journal and/or IAU ?

> 2. <observatory> must be taken from the list maintained by the ADS

> 5. the keeper of the <observatory> data will provide a specific set of
> services that allow identifier verification, harvesting, and access to
> the datasets

What is an observatory here ? A ground based institution (but in that
case won't it be better to have a telescope-instrument identifier ?) OR
a satellite OR the OFFICIAL data centre of such satellite data ?

This seems to rule out "private" datasets (as I defined in my earlier
posting) - which might be good - but what about "catalogue" datasets ?


> If someone else wants to define another class of identifiers (i.e.,
> other than the "ADS/" class), that is fine, but it would probably be
> sensible to make sure that the values and useage comply with IVOA
> standards (as the ADS ones do) in order to maximize usefulness and
> recognition.

  what is IVOA ?

  is this a task for the FITS community (if not maybe we should stop
  here, or confine the discussion to few FITS specific items), for some
  other IAU body, or for somebody else ?

> ADS/Sa.CXO#obs/<ObsId>
> 	Points to a particular observation
> ADS/Sa.CXO#defset/<name>
> 	Points to a specifically defined set of observations

  Once again these seem to point to something which can be assigned
  only by an official data centre.

> ADS/Sa.CXO#bibcode/<bibcode>
> 	Points to all information we have for a particular paper

  Who is "we" in the above sentence, and what papers should be concerned ?

  Any paper published on a journal indexed by the ADS ?
  and who is storing the relevant data ? ADS, CDS, data centre, author ?
  Any paper on Chandra assuming that the author sends associated
  reduced data to the Chandra data centre
  Any paper published by Chandra data centre staff only ?

> Of course, this begs two questions:
> - Can two files have the same DS_IDENT value?
> - Can one file belong to more than one dataset?

  Yes, but what about the case of the results of a paper regarding
  the analysis of some particular observational data ?

  The original (starting) data will be stored at some data centre,
  but the result will in general be privately owned by the authors,
  and do not BELONG TO the original dataset, more they STEM OUT OF
  the original dataset (parent-child relation)

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