NoSQL (Not only SQL) databases were developed to replace relational databases and get away from the traditional models of working with and managing data at scale.

One of the trickiest aspects of relational database management can be dealing with missing information. The standard method of representing missing information is to set the 'value' to null.

Many researchers aren’t keen to publish null findings because the effort required to do so may not ultimately be rewarded by acceptance of the research into a scientific journal.