Is a data scientist considered to be a 'real' scientist?

Question

Is a Data Scientist like a real scientist or is it like an IT job? What is different in a Data scientist work than normal jobs?

Answer 1

The presence of data in the world has resulted in the implementation of scientific knowledge, methods, and techniques to analyze it. There is a mountain of data in the world waiting to be understood and it can be treated as a word in itself that has this expansive room for exploration. 

Data analysis and deriving value out of it demand the nature and way of scientific methods, or in this case, the  methods of Data Science:

• Asking a question

• Coming up with a hypothesis 

• Making a testable prediction and provide evidence to back the hypothesis

• Perform tests through data experiments

• Analyzing the results and extracting appropriate conclusions

Quite evidently, Data Scientists are doing what scientists do when it comes to its nature, process, and method. Only, Data Scientists do it in the digital world. 

• Data Science requires discipline just like in science. It demands the same diligence that you find in scientific work. 

• Data Science has similarities with science in terms of framing of questions, experimenting to find conclusive evidence and understanding, and communicating the same to the rest of the world. This work itself has to stay relevant for a long time.

• Data Science methods are implemented regularly in quantitative scientific work.

Here is a great video on who is a Data Scientist and what their roles are.