Improving Processes for User Support in e-Science

Support processes play an important role to facilitate researchers (users) to accomplish their research activities with the help of cyber-infrastructure(s). However, the current user-support practices in cyber-infrastructure are being followed without an accountability and ownership of tasks thus over-burdening user support staffs who are performing user support on a free-will basis. This research project explores the current state of the user support process in Earth System Grid Federation (ESGF) from support staffs´ perspective, taken as a case study in Earth System Modeling (ESM), a global cyber-infrastructure project. The study proposes an improved framework of best practices for servicing end-users of e-Science infrastructures that can be applied to enhance the user support process of ESGF and other cyber-infrastructures.