Allison Wright (X) (asker) Aug 6, 2013:

Big data are big data, no matter how big they are! As I suspected, there is still a certain amount of fluidity in the use of this term, with varied response from even experienced linguists!
I am going to use uncapitalised big data for two reasons:
1. Precedence exists in scientific and technical papers.
2. I do not wish to perpetuate a common habit/possible error which has no logical foundation apart from drawing attention to the term, which some might view as "affectation".
Marcos, I have noticed a growing trend in Brazilian Portuguese where ordinary English words are capitalised to denote their foreign origin. I most cases, these words are not capitalised in English.
My current source text relating to this question, by the way, is German, which uses the English term, capitalised. Thank you for the lively discussion of this question, everybody!

DLyons Aug 6, 2013:

@David If it's something that the target audience is very familiar with then it has passed from being something unusual that needs to be flagged with capitals or apostrophes, to a phrase that can just be used as-is.

B D Finch Aug 5, 2013:

@David I back Donal's comment to JCC. It does depend whether or not the target readership is expected to be completely familiar with the term.

David Moore (X) Aug 5, 2013:

Donal, I see no reasoning at all behind your comment to JCC - would you explain it, please? The mere fact that 'IW readers will already have been bombarded by it' means nothing at all to me. Or am I missing something?

David Moore (X) Aug 5, 2013:

Hi Allison, As far as I am concerned, this is an affectation and is not to be encouraged. I'm with Wikipedia here, all the way!

Marcos Cavalca Aug 5, 2013:

The way I see it, "big data are", while "Big Data is". The former means "a collection of data sets", while the latter means "the concept or the sum of all big data collections".