Wikidata:Property proposal/principal investigator

principal investigator

Originally proposed at Wikidata:Property proposal/Generic

   Done: principal investigator (P8329) (Talk and documentation)

Description	person(s) in charge of conducting a research project
Represents	principal investigator (Q7245082)
Data type	Item
Domain	human (Q5)
Example 1	Comparative Effectiveness of Broad- versus Narrow-Spectrum Antibiotics for Acute Respiratory Tract Infections in Children (Q93379220) → Jeffrey S. Gerber (Q38820379) reference URL (P854) → pcori.org
Example 2	Efficacy and Safety of Dapagliflozin in Acute Heart Failure (Q87930374) → JoAnn Lindenfeld (Q91133939) reference URL (P854) → clinicaltrials.gov
Example 3	A Two-arm Randomized Non-comparative Phase 2 Trial of AGEN2034 (anti PD-1) as a Monotherapy or Combination Therapy with AGEN1884 (anti-CTLA4) or with Placebo in Women with Recurrent Cervical Cancer (Second Line) - RaPiDS (Q94794280) → Leslie Boyd (Q94794770) reference URL (P854) → clinicaltrials.med.nyu.edu
Example 4	RV 144 (Q7278028) → Supachai Rerks-Ngarm (Q89154809) reference URL (P854) → clinicaltrials.gov
Planned use	for grant funded projects from government or foundations
Number of IDs in source	for example, 300,000 items have a ClinicalTrials.gov ID (P3098), and each of these research projects has at least one principal investigator potentially many millions, e.g. research projects with GEPRIS project ID (P4870) (hundreds of thousands) or Alfred P. Sloan Foundation grant ID (P7513) (hundreds)
See also	investigated by (P1840), chairperson (P488)

Motivation

The closest related terms investigated by (P1840) is defined as "person or organization involved in investigation of the item" which is not the same as the principal investigator in a scientific study. Research studies have principal investigators to lead the projects while detective work involves investigated by. Most scientific studies have a specific person named in this role. --- FULBERT (talk) 19:08, 19 May 2020 (UTC)

Discussion

I considered investigated by (P1840), has role in modeling (P6530), chairperson (P488) as similar. I agree - investigated by (P1840) is about detective work and the investigation in this property is about research or science. chairperson (P488) names a person who has a particular leadership role, and the chair of an organization is analogous to the principal investigator of a research project, but these also are different concepts. I do not see an obvious way to model this very common relationship without this property. As Wikidata imports information from grant funded projects we need to note the head researcher. Blue Rasberry (talk) 19:28, 19 May 2020 (UTC)

 SupportI agree with the proposal and the comments made by Blue Rasberry above. Furthermore, my impression is that this bit of info (principal investigator) is important; the value of the research data currently in wikidata (such as clinical trials) would be significantly enhanced if we can link to the principal investigator(s). People who refer to wikidata to obtain research info generally consider the principal investigator essential. We have an automated process in place that can link many clinical trials to principal investigators, but haven't made this link because currently, a clearly appropriate property does not exist. Sheri Tibbs (talk) 22:06, 19 May 2020 (UTC)

 Support though the "domain" field in the proposal should be the subject item types (i.e. research projects or clinical trial items), not the value item types. ArthurPSmith (talk) 16:55, 21 May 2020 (UTC)

 Oppose This is somewhat similar to Wikidata:Property proposal/Main deity. This could be done with investigated by (P1840) with qualifier object has role (P3831) principal investigator (Q7245082). --Tinker Bell ★ ♥ 02:21, 22 May 2020 (UTC) @Bluerasberry:  Support --Tinker Bell ★ ♥ 02:43, 28 May 2020 (UTC)

@Tinker Bell: I agree that what you propose could work but think the differences between investigated by (P1840) and principle investigator are different enough to justify separate properties. I looked again and made the case further. May I please have your further consideration?

• investigated by (P1840)
  1. 400 uses so far with no particular dataset associated with this concept
  2. proposed for detective work in criminal justice, accounting, and government administration
  3. not a technical term from any lexicon; "investigation" is colloquial here and could refer to anyone doing this activity
• "principle investigator"
  1. 300,000 uses in ClinicalTrials.gov (Q5133746), probably as many in Chinese Clinical Trial Registry ID (P8064) which uses the equivalent term "study leader"
  2. proposed for academic research in medicine, physics, astronomy, computer science, etc.
  3. This is a technical term for the person who carries legal responsibility to answer for a project and the funding

Aside from this, you make the comparison to Wikidata:Property proposal/Main deity, where instead the consensus was that this would note the first deity among several listed as dedicated to (P825). Here, the title "principal investigator" not the first among many, but is more like chairperson (P488), because it refers to the person who has the special role of speaking for the science, budget, and administration when the "investigation" comes from 10-100+ other scientists. Possibly investigated by (P1840) applies those ~100 people named as authors on papers about the study or all the people named in a laboratory doing a project, but grouping people in this way is unorthodox.

I am saying a lot here, but again, your proposal is workable, and I could accept it. Does anything I have said strike you as making a stronger case for "principal investigator" as a new property? Thanks for your attention. Blue Rasberry (talk) 01:07, 25 May 2020 (UTC)

Thanks for this detailed explanation Bluerasberry. I think this is all very helpful for this suggested property. --- FULBERT (talk) 17:36, 25 May 2020 (UTC)

 Support The difference in meaning between a primary investigator (now usually "lead investigator" in the US) in the detective division of a police force and a primary investigator of a scientific research initiative has diverged sufficiently to warrant a new property. Clifford Anderson (talk) 00:21, 25 May 2020 (UTC)

 Support This property would provide a straightforward way to link a research study to the person who bears primary responsibility as the point of contact for the study. There are thousands of studies already in Wikidata that could be linked to their PIs using this property and I don't think making this connection with the same property used to link accidents and crimes to their lead investigators makes sense. I would suggest in the property definition to make a note that this sense of "principle investigator" is not the same as the way that PI is used colloquially to indicate the head of a research laboratory. Baskaufs (talk) 00:21, 26 May 2020 (UTC)

 Support I support this williamhoos  Support Agree that there is a nuanced difference between investigated by (P1840) and "principal investigator" that warrants this new property.Amywestermann (talk) 23:08, 26 May 2020 (UTC)

•  Comment what happens if the study's creator isn't called "principal investigator" or other "investigators" would need to be included? --- Jura 09:23, 27 May 2020 (UTC)

@Jura1: It is fairly common for one research project to have multiple "principal investigators". This happens when there is a multisite trial and each lab has its own "principal investigator". Typically only one will appear in the main documentation, but the others may get that title in supplemental documentation. This typically will not be confusing, and I do not expect this to typically appear in Wikidata. The lower level researchers should not be included in this property, because "principal investigator" is a technical term for the legally designated point of contact and responsibility, and this administrative designation has nothing to do with other people "investigating" or researching. Some similar terms are "study leader", head of the study or laboratory, or designated contact for discussing the research. It is okay to include anyone in this position by other names. The idea of having a point of contact to speak for research is universal by a few names. Blue Rasberry (talk) 20:52, 27 May 2020 (UTC)

The problem is that if they are not "principal investigator", but something else, including them under that label doesn't seem appropriate. --- Jura 07:19, 31 May 2020 (UTC)

@Jura1: This property is intended to capture the individual who fits under the description "person(s) in charge of conducting a research project," which is not always the one who creates the study, but rather the person responsible for it, legally referred to as Principal Investigator. However, others may be considered in this position even if they do not have the title itself. --- FULBERT (talk) 16:50, 2 June 2020 (UTC)

•  Support supporting this Zblace (talk) 17:26, 28 May 2020 (UTC)
•  Support clear support, this is necessary for any grant and a well defined property by grant agencies. --Hannes Röst (talk) 01:25, 10 June 2020 (UTC)

@FULBERT, Bluerasberry, Tibbs001, ArthurPSmith, Tinker Bell, Clifford Anderson: @Baskaufs, williamhoos, Amywestermann, Jura1, Zblace: @Hannes Röst: principal investigator (P8329) has been created. Pamputt (talk) 08:13, 10 June 2020 (UTC)

@Pamputt: Thank you for your assistance with this. --- FULBERT (talk) 10:29, 10 June 2020 (UTC)