Article Text
Abstract
The volume and velocity of data are growing rapidly and big data analytics are being applied to these data in many fields. Population and public health researchers may be unfamiliar with the terminology and statistical methods used in big data. This creates a barrier to the application of big data analytics. The purpose of this glossary is to define terms used in big data and big data analytics and to contextualise these terms. We define the five Vs of big data and provide definitions and distinctions for data mining, machine learning and deep learning, among other terms. We provide key distinctions between big data and statistical analysis methods applied to big data. We contextualise the glossary by providing examples where big data analysis methods have been applied to population and public health research problems and provide brief guidance on how to learn big data analysis methods.
- public health
- research methods
- methodology
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Footnotes
Contributors DF and KS were responsible for the conceptualisation of this manuscript. DF and RB contributed to the definitions and references for the glossary. All three authors contributed to the writing and editing of this manuscript. All authors have read and approved the final submitted version of this manuscript.
Funding Funding for this paper was provided by Dr. Fuller’s Canada Research Chair.
Competing interests None declared.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.