Towards a science gateway reference architecture

Science gateways have been developed over the last twenty years and have grown into a large community of practice, as evidenced by international workshops and conferences. Because of the diversity of approaches to creating science gateways and the always changing landscape of technologies, the community lacks a common definition for the term "science gateway" itself and common terminology for describing the common components of a gateway architecture. Instead, a wide range of definitions and understandings exist and are used in different communities; this is evident, for example, in discussions whether science gateways are the same as virtual research environments. This paper attempts to address these issues by focusing on how science gateways support scientific research and considering the consequences on cyberinfrastructure.