This paper is an outcome of an AAI project funded by an NEH/IMLS Advancing Knowledge grant exploring user needs in archaeological data sharing. This paper’s co-authors (Levent Atici, Justin Lev-Tov, Sarah Whitcher Kansa and Eric Kansa) all participated in the NEH/IMLS study. They recognized that “data reuse” in archaeology is an area that is in critical need of more exploration. This paper reflects the co-authors’ attempts to grapple with this topic by documenting their reuse of data collected by another researcher. The results of their collaborative study highlight implications for data sharing, archiving and publishing programs.

Abstract: This study explores issues in using data generated by other analysts. Three researchers independently analyzed an orphaned, decades-old zooarchaeological dataset and then compared their analytical approaches and results. Although they took a similar initial approach to determine the dataset’s suitability for analysis, the three researchers generated markedly different interpretive conclusions. In examining how researchers use legacy data, this paper highlights interpretive issues, data integrity concerns, and data documentation needs. In order to meet these needs, we propose greater professional recognition for data dissemination, favoring models of “data publication” over “data sharing” or “data archiving.”

• Cultivate a distributed information ecosystem
• Cultivate a robust preservation infrastructure
• Encourage data professionalism
• Require non-proprietary data
• Address data ethics

Visit the blog post in Heritage Bytes for details on these recommendations and our responses to the specific questions posed in the RFI. You can also download the PDF version of the AAI’s response: AAI-Comments-FR2011-28621

1. Public Access to Digital Data Resulting from Federally Funded Scientific Research. This RFI seeks “recommendations on approaches for ensuring long-term stewardship and encouraging broad public access to unclassified digital data that result from federally funded scientific research.” Public input will inform the National Science and Technology Council’s Interagency Working Group on Digital Data, which in 2009 issued a report Harnessing the Power of Digital Data (available here) that recommended agencies lay the foundations for digital scientific data policy and make their policies publicly available. We have seen response to this report in the NSF’s January 2011 requirement of a Data Management Plan, and a similar move by the NEH Office of Digital Humanities in June 2011. This same working group is now seeking additional insight from “non-Federal stakeholders, including the public, universities, nonprofit and for-profit publishers, libraries, federally funded and non-federally funded research scientists, and other organizations and institutions with an interest in long-term stewardship and improved public access to the results of federally funded research.”

Responses to this RFI must be received by January 12, 2012. Check here for more details, including specific questions to consider, and information on how to respond to this RFI.

2. Public Access to Peer-Reviewed Scholarly Publications Resulting from Federally Funded Research. This request solicits input on “approaches for ensuring long-term stewardship and broad public access to the peer-reviewed scholarly publications that result from federally funded scientific research.” Public input will “inform deliberations of the National Science and Technology Council’s Task Force on Public Access to Scholarly Publications.” Responses must be received by January 12, 2012. Check here for more details and information on how to respond to this RFI.

Open Access to scholarly products has been the driving force behind the AAI since its inception. We are delighted to be celebrating Open Access week this year with a lecture given by Eric Kansa at the University of Arizona Libraries. Eric is one of three invited speakers addressing The Future of Data: Open Access and Reproducibility on October 25.

In other news, big kudos to the online journal Internet Archaeology, who have opened up access to all issues of the journal for the duration of Open Access Week. So fire up that hard drive and go do some research!

Finally, we’d also like to celebrate the long-term efforts of Chuck Jones and the Ancient World Online (AWOL) that for years has been highlighting Open Access materials related to the ancient world. AWOL is a rich resource with a large, global following, so check it out if you aren’t already a convert!

We’re definitely not alone in this assessment, and other groups are also experimenting with various models of data publication. One group is the California Digital Library (CDL), a unit that runs many of the University of California’s leading scholarly communications and data preservation efforts.

The CDL recently began a project developing a platform to support a new kind of outlet for scientific data dissemination. They’re using the term “Data Journals” (see this link to a presentation introducing the idea) to describe this new outlet, since “journals” are a familiar and accepted part of researcher communications.

Like more conventional journals, a Data Journal would provide a disciplinary focus for data dissemination. In addition, because the CDL has expertise in the technical infrastructure of publication and data curation, a Data Journal would benefit from the same library curation, indexing, and search services that are so essential in conventional scholarly communications. That means we will be able to reliably track citations and impact of datasets, just as we can track such metrics for conventional publications.

This goal aligns very well with work we’re undertaking (with support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation) to develop editorial workflows to improve data quality and align datasets with standards that may be expected in a given domain. Because of these converging and complementary goals, we’re joining with the CDL and will be piloting the development of a Data Journal for archaeology. The Data Journal will help communicate and set expectations about the nature and quality of data. It will also increase the future impact of datasets by adding relevance to them, increasing their discoverability, and contributing to their longevity. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, we’re eager to develop the concept of a Data Journal because it will help make “data” a first class-citizen in the world of research communications.

This work will be demonstrated in Open Context, with a primary focus on archaeology and related disciplines. Open Context is an open-access, web-based platform for publishing field science data, especially in archaeology and related fields. The system makes data searchable and citable, with robust archival support from the California Digital Library (http://www.cdlib.org/). As Open Context sees application in other disciplines, outcomes of this effort will inform best practices for publishing data in the broader are of small sciences.

Founded in 1934, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation makes grants to support original research and broad-based education related to science, technology, and economic performance. The AAI grant is funded through the Digital Information Technology Program, which aims to increase access to human knowledge and the fruits of human culture while developing a better framework for understanding the information economy.