(how) do archaeologists share their data?

This poster was presented in the colloquium Digital Archaeology Bern 2023 that took place in Bern (Switzerland) on 1-3 February 2023. The poster shows the research plan, methodology, and preliminary results of a study on Catalan archaeologists data management, sharing and reuse, which is part of the author's PhD.

Abstract

The benefits of data opening for both science and society have been widely exposed. Data sharing not only helps making research more sustainable but also accelerates innovation, and Archaeology is not an exception. In fact, the openness of Archaeology in general and of archaeological research data has been seen not only as a beneficial practice but necessary, as a practically imperative solution to the already destructive nature of the archaeological research method, as well as an ethical obligation for a discipline that studies a public good such as heritage and uses mostly public funding. 

In the road leading to open archaeological research data, researchers play a crucial role, as they are the ones who collect, work, and manage the data during most of their lifecycle. Considering this, it feels necessary to assess their points of view, to fully understand how they are managing and sharing (or not) their data, and why. Understanding the researchers’ perceptions and their current research data management practices can allow us not only to get to know the real starting point and evaluate the implementation of open data, but also to define the challenges this new model must overcome and develop a better strategy to foster its implementation. 

My study focuses Catalan archaeology researchers, as this region has a dynamic and complex yet well-defined archaeological community that includes more than seven research institutions and nearly 30 research groups. With the goal to get to know these researchers’ practices and perspectives, I am conducting a series of interviews to 40 of the principal investigators of archaeological research projects. During the interviews, topics such as data management practices, data sharing practices, reuse practices as well as opinions around archaeological open data, its possibilities and challenges, are discussed. In this poster, I will be presenting the theoretical background of the study, the methodology applied, the design of the questionnaire, and an overview of the preliminary results gathered up to the moment.