A record of recorded, tabulated, numerical records of observed phenomena

Question

I am looking for a good word to use to describe a record of recorded, tabulated, numerical records of observed phenomena. I am studying an video game using a system which generates a large amount of numerical data. I want to present the resulting record of data to the public for use and study. I considered the word almanac, but this infers that the records are yearly. My records will be ongoing and continually growing. Is there a better word for this?

Here is a visualization for my data:

http://www.clearuse.us/starcraft/

Additional Explanation:

The research involves the game Starcraft and recorded the outcomes of battles between groups of 41 different unit types. The goal was to graph (or otherwise visualize) the outcomes of these fights to determine the battle efficiency of each unit based on the unit cost. The first data set of data includes numeric data from around 40,000 different battles. A basic visualization of the results can be seen at the link above. I want to make the data set publicly available as an api o that anyone can create their own visualization and also to build support for the test. I need a name for the data/api. The Starcarft Almanac was my first choice. I know that there is a better word than almanac, so I asked the question.

Answer 1

From the description you give, I'm fairly confident that almanac is the best match for the collection of data you're compiling. Here's the entry in Merriam-Webster's Eleventh Collegiate Dictionary (2003) for almanac:

almanac n 1 : a publication containing astronomical and meteorological data for a given year and often including a miscellany of other information 2 : a usu. annual publication containing statistical, tabular, and general information.

Note that definition 2 of almanac involves a work that, while "usu. annual," need not be limited to once-a-year updating and publishing.

As Andrew Leach notes in a comment above, log is another legitimate option. Here is the fourth definition of that term in the Eleventh Collegiate:

log n 4 : a record of performance, events, or day-to-day activities ["a computer log"]

If "Starcraft Almanac" sounds too bucolic or Ben Franklin–inflected for your taste, and if "Starcraft Log" conjures too vivid images of Captain Kirk on the bridge of the Starship Enterprise, you'll have to turn to options that are more fanciful but less accurate. Two terms that might work are archive:

archive n 1 : a place in which public records or historical documents are preserved; also : the material preserved—often used in pl. 2 : a repository or collection esp. of information

and register:

register n 1 : a written record containing regular entries of items or details 2 a : a book or system of public records

Another possibility is to invoke what may be the earliest preserved Western book to contain large amounts of tabular data—Ptolemy's Almagest, which reported on planetary positions through the years. "Starcraft Almagest" sounds impressive, but unfortunately the word almagest has a modern meaning only tangentially related to Ptolemy's work:

almagest n any of several early medieval treatises on a branch of knowledge

Or you could allude to Sima Qian's monumental and comprehensive Records of the Grand Historian and call your work "Records of the Starcraft Historian"—but that title strikes me as being a bit audacious even for a work of solid scholarship, considering the original's greatness.

Answer 2

I suggest data set: a collection of related sets of information that is composed of separate elements but can be manipulated as a unit by a computer.