There you are: among the many new jobs and jobs descriptions that swarm the labor market, the “new” field of Data Science stands out like a beacon signaling the promised land of a never ending job supply. Yet, this is more than a passing fad, it is simply the realization of everything the evolving information economy always had in store for IT specialists, for the economy itself and for the world at large.

With this information-rich book the authors set out to elucidate how to go beyond the Big Data hype by presenting in a very comprehensive set of chapters everything that is permeated by Data in a globalized world. At the center of it all is the “data scientist”, a data-savvy, quantitative-minded, coding-literate problem solver, who could be part of the solution of the world’s problem, as long as she is part of multidisciplinary teams. The book, intended for experienced data scientists, statisticians, science PhDs, students and those new to data science, among others, wants to describe the current state of data science as well prescribe what data science could be as an academic discipline. This must-have guide includes numerous illustrative code samples and a helpful supplemental reading list that you will definitely need to really get into doing Data Science, for instance, math, coding (R and Python), data analysis and statistical inference, artificial intelligence and machine learning, experimental design and visualization.

Doing data science : straight talk from the frontline. Cathy O’Neil, Rachel Schutt. Sebastopol, CA.: O’Reilly Media, 2013. First Edition.