Nature is hiring a data editor...how will they make sense of the data?

It looks like the journal Nature is hiring a Chief Data Editor (link via Hilary M.). It looks like the primary purpose of this editor is to develop tools for collecting, curating, and distributing data with the goal of improving reproducible research.

The main duties of the editor, as described by the ad are: 

Nature Publishing Group is looking for a Chief Editor to develop a product aimed at making research data more available, discoverable and interpretable.

The ad also mentions having an eye for commercial potential; I wonder if this move was motivated by companies like figshare who are already providing a reproducible data service. I haven’t used figshare, but the early reports from friends who have are that it is great. 

The thing that bothered me about the ad is that there is a strong focus on data collection/storage/management but absolutely no mention of the second component of the data science problem: making sense of the data. To make sense of piles of data requires training in applied statistics (called by whatever name you like best). The ad doesn’t mention any such qualifications. 

Even if the goal of the position is just to build a competitor to figshare, it seems like a good idea for the person collecting the data to have some idea of what researchers are going to do with it. When dealing with data, those researchers will frequently be statisticians by one name or another. 

Bottom line: I’m stoked Nature is recognizing the importance of data in this very prominent way. But I wish they’d realize that a data revolution also requires a revolution in statistics.