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- Börjesson, Lisa, et al.
(författare)
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Information needs on research data creation
- 2022
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Ingår i: Information research. - : Högskolan i Borås. - 1368-1613. ; 27:special issue
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Introduction. Researchers’ data related information needs are growing. This paper reports the findings of a study with archaeologists and cultural heritage professionals focussing on data reuse related meta-information needs.Method. Interviews with (N=)10 archaeologists and cultural heritage professionals. Analysis. Qualitative coding and content analysis.Results. Four types of paradata needs (data on processes, e.g. data creation) are identified, including 1) scope, 2) provenance, 3) methods and 4) knowledge organisation and representation paradata. Knowledge organisation and representation paradata has been least explored both in research and practises so far. The findings point to a need to develop the understanding of the needs and means of documentation of knowledge organisation and representation.Conclusions. The findings contribute to the data literacy of researchers producing and using data descriptions, and to the study of how paradata can be created and used. Further, the findings indicate that distance-to-data is a significant parameter in determining whether information needs are continuous or discrete. Further, the most likely type of reuse should guide the level and type of paradata. Finally, the findings underline that in spite of the comprehensiveness of available meta-information, it will be incomplete. Complementary means — including collaboration with data creators and meta-information extraction approaches — are needed to increase information reusability.
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| 2. |
- Börjesson, Lisa, 1985-, et al.
(författare)
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Re-purposing Excavation Database Content as Paradata : An Explorative Analysis of Paradata Identification Challenges and Opportunities
- 2022
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Ingår i: KULA: Knowledge Creation, Dissemination, and Preservation Studies. - : University of Victoria Libraries. - 2398-4112. ; 6:3, s. 1-18
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Although data reusers request information about how research data was created and curated, this information is often non-existent or only briefly covered in data descriptions. The need for such contextual information is particularly critical in fields like archaeology, where old legacy data created during different time periods and through varying methodological framings and fieldwork documentation practices retains its value as an important information source. This article explores the presence of contextual information in archaeological data with a specific focus on data provenance and processing information, i.e., paradata. The purpose of the article is to identify and explicate types of paradata in field observation documentation. The method used is an explorative close reading of field data from an archaeological excavation enriched with geographical metadata. The analysis covers technical and epistemological challenges and opportunities in paradata identification, and discusses the possibility of using identified paradata in data descriptions and for data reliability assessments. Results show that it is possible to identify both knowledge organisation paradata (KOP) relating to data structuring and knowledge-making paradata (KMP) relating to fieldwork methods and interpretative processes. However, while the data contains many traces of the research process, there is an uneven and, in some categories, low level of structure and systematicity that complicates automated metadata and paradata identification and extraction. The results show a need to broaden the understanding of how structure and systematicity are used and how they impact research data in archaeology and in comparable field sciences. The insights into how a dataset’s KOP and KMP can be read is also a methodological contribution to data literacy research and practice development. On a repository level, the results underline the need to include paradata about dataset creation, purpose, terminology, dataset internal and external relations, and eventual data colloquialisms that require explanation to reusers.
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| 3. |
- Huvila, Isto, Professor, 1976-, et al.
(författare)
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Archaeological information-making activities according to field reports
- 2022
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Ingår i: Library & Information Science Research. - : Elsevier. - 0740-8188 .- 1873-1848. ; 44:3
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Accounts of how scholarly information is produced are crucial for understanding and using the information yet they are often criticized for being incomprehensive or even non-existent. This article aims to increase the understanding of how scholarly information-making is conceived and documented by information-makers. By analyzing how a set of archaeological field reports describe different aspects of the information-making activities (cf. Activity Theory) pertaining to the research documented in the reports, the study suggests that scholars might have a tendency to focus on reporting tools, outcomes and physical location of activities while descriptions of especially rules/norms, community factors and division of labour are rare and expected to be known tacitly. The findings suggest also that the descriptions of information-making activities become comprehensible in relation to their related activities. Therefore, an increased emphasis on explicating their underpinning social factors and how activity systems and their elements link to other activity systems could improve the comprehensiveness of documentation and decrease the need of tacit contextual knowledge.
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| 4. |
- Huvila, Isto, Professor, 1976-, et al.
(författare)
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Citing methods literature : citations to field manuals as paradata on archaeological fieldwork
- 2022
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Ingår i: Information research. - : Högskolan i Borås. - 1368-1613. ; 27:3
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Introduction: This article investigates how researchers cite methods literature, and to what extent and how these citations could function as a form of paradata i.e., descriptive data on research processes.Method: Citations to two prominent field manuals were retrieved using Scopus; full-texts were obtained for analysis.Analysis: Descriptive statistics and qualitative content analysis were used.Results: Field manuals are cited both for compliance and contrast to clarify procedures and actions, understanding of what is considered conventional and extra-ordinary, to elucidate work processes in broader terms, and to explain concepts and what is common disciplinary knowledge. Even if literature use seems indicative of work procedures, a citation to a method cannot necessarily be considered as direct evidence of what was done in reality.Conclusions: Citations to field manuals can function as a complementary form of paradata to other information on how archaeological work has been conducted. However, rather than forming a standalone corpus of evidence, they can be expected to function best if combined with other indicators. A citation to a specific methods text can be indicative of certain patterns of work or presence of a shared scope of relevance with other works citing the same text.
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| 5. |
- Sköld, Olle, FD, 1983-, et al.
(författare)
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Interrogating paradata
- 2022
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Ingår i: Information research. - : Högskolan i Borås. - 1368-1613. ; 27:special issue
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Introduction. The concept of paradata has received increasing attention in recent information scholarship. The literature however shows considerable disagreement about what paradata is and how it can be purposive. The aim of this paper is to facilitate the use of the resources and analytical impetuses offered by the concept of paradata by providing an explanation to what paradata is in operational terms.Method. The examination of paradata is based on a scoping review of 53 scholarly texts that varyingly engage with the concept.Analysis. The reviewed texts were analysed using a concept-analysis framework focusing principally on discerning the main descriptive features of paradata and prevalent instances of use and usefulness.Results. The paper shows what the key elements, relationships, use-cases and uncertainties of paradata are.Conclusions. Findings support a media-archaeological view of born-digital artifacts, and bibliographical archaeology is shown to provide a programmatic approach in identifying significant archaeological characteristics among artifacts that have yet to be exhaustively studied.nificant archaeological characteristics among artifacts that have yet to be exhaustively studied.
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