International Science Gateways 2017 Special issue

摘要

The concept behind Science Gateways (SGs), Virtual Laboratories (VLs)and Virtual Research Environments (VREs) is to support researchers and educators with computational solutions that ease the use of complex research infrastructures, data infrastructures, lab instruments and sensor networks. The goal of SCs, VLs and VREs is to enable researchers and educators to efficiently perform their computational tasks, allowing them to focus on their specific topic and research objectives. This special issue includes invited submissions from three 2017 conference and workshop series that collaborated to bring together SG, VL and VRE communities on three different continents - the Gateway conference in the US, IWSG (International Workshop on Science Gateways) in Europe and IWSG-A (International Workshop on Science Gateways - Australia) in Australia. The papers in this special issue reflect the current state of the art in the field with focus on four main areas: (ⅰ) global context and impact; (ⅱ) social context, collaboration and protocols; (ⅲ) underpinning technology; and (ⅳ) technology for specific applications and specific SGs and VLs.