Abstract
ABSTRACTWith the advent of the Web, increased emphasis on “research data management,” and innovations in reproducible research practices, scholars have more incentives and opportunities to document and disseminate their primary data. This article seeks to guide archaeologists in data sharing by highlighting recurring challenges in reusing archived data gleaned from observations on workflows and reanalysis efforts involving datasets published over the past 15 years by Open Context. Based on our findings, we propose specific guidelines to improve data management, documentation, and publishing practices so that primary data can be more efficiently discovered, understood, aggregated, and synthesized by wider research communities.
Highlights
Archaeologists, those specializing in zooarchaeology and other domains that emphasize quantitative methods, have long recognized that scientific rigor requires access to full and well-documented data (Driver 1992; Grigson 1978; Meadow and Zeder 1978)
In cultural resource management (CRM), data practices may be dictated by the CRM company or may not be structured at all, varying from project to project
In our work with the Anatolia Zooarchaeology Project datasets, and throughout our years of work publishing archaeological data in Open Context, we have found that decoding can be straightforward with one-to-one pairing of code to term, the decoding process can be complicated by interdependencies between codes or by custom amendments to the codebook
Summary
Archaeologists, those specializing in zooarchaeology and other domains that emphasize quantitative methods, have long recognized that scientific rigor requires access to full and well-documented data (Driver 1992; Grigson 1978; Meadow and Zeder 1978). In this article, informed by years of data management experience and integrative data analyses, we describe some of the problems inherent in current, normative practices of data collection and documentation in archaeology. These problems can inhibit future data reuse by imposing costs in terms of the time and effort needed to clean, translate, and understand other researchers’ datasets. We offer a set of guidelines for data collection and dissemination in the “digital age.” These are practical steps that practitioners can take to Archaeological Analysis in the Information Age improve their data collection and documentation to better leverage these new forms of communication and access. That consensus needs to be accompanied by more professional recognition and reward for excellence in data usability and sharing
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