"I'm not sure if that's of any interest". Researchers' points of view on archaeological fieldwork data sharing in Catalonia
Creators: name: Batlle-Baró, Sabina
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2023
Subjects: Archaeology
Archaeological research
Data sharing
Open data
Archaeological data
Catalonia

description: 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 for the advancement of the discipline, practically a sine qua non condition to be able to respond to the big questions that Archaeology has not yet been able to solve (Kintigh, et al., 2014). In this sense, data sharing is seen, by many authors and researchers, 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 (Marwick et al., 2017). 


For many years, the main worries of the literature about archaeological openness were the big transformations this model could bring to the discipline, for better or worse. Apparently, the benefits of open data are now more accepted, as the advantages and disadvantages of this not-so-new model are not the focus of the discussion anymore. Eventually, the debate seems to have shifted to a most practical sphere, from why or whether should we change to how should we make this change possible or how can we overcome the problems we are facing when trying to implement it. 


International projects such as ARIADNE and SEADDA have been exploring these technical challenges and got to work to build infrastructures and communities in order to provide European archaeology with a strong network to share not only data but also knowledge and experience in this opening process. These initiatives have been a huge success and a necessary step forward for data managers and curators. However, this whole movement is somehow still lacking the participation of one of the biggest stakeholders: the researchers. The role of the researchers in this play is crucial, and we should include them in the debate, as they are the ones who collect, work and manage the data during most of their lifecycle. Considering this, it feels necessary to assess the points of view of the researchers, to fully understand how and why they are managing and sharing (or not) their data. 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. 


This communication will present the preliminary results of a series of interviews conducted with principal investigators of archaeological field projects in Catalonia (Spain), during which the researcher’s data management habits and their feelings on open data were discussed. In Spain, archaeological heritage is managed by the governments of the autonomous regions. Even though there is common ground, there are differences between the regions and their heritage legislation, especially relating to the management of reports and archaeological data, and the funding of archaeological research fieldwork. The different autonomous regions also have different research systems and funding structures.  


Huge differences in the way archaeology (and archaeological data) are managed in different countries and regions around the world have been recently highlighted by SEADDA (Jakobsson et al. 2021). For this reason, we feel the need to concentrate our research on a well-defined and well-known frame to minimize the external factors that could affect these practices and points of view. By choosing a specific area of archaeology (fieldwork research) and a delimited geographical context (Catalonia), we make sure that no main differences in funding, legislation or national trends and opportunities are influencing the study set, and all the especial characteristics and nuances of the context can be properly assessed. Moreover, previous knowledge about the shared legal and social framework (impossible when analysing bigger areas) allows for a better understanding of the results. 


We have conducted interviews to more than fifteen principal investigators of archaeological fieldwork research projects from Catalan institutions. All projects were funded by the Culture Department of the Generalitat de Catalunya under the same conditions, in a call for fieldwork and research grants that made no mention on data management or publication and were developed for four years (2018-2021). By analysing the preliminary results of these interviews, we try to describe the current data management and sharing practices. Also, we seek to determine the main points of view of the archaeological research community in Catalonia on data sharing, in order to identify the main social barriers and extract useful information that could be used to transform and ameliorate the current model. 


References 


Marwick, B. (2017). Open science in Archaeology. The SAA Archaeological Record 


Jakobsson, U., Novák, D., Richards, J.D., Štular, B. and Wright, H. (eds) (2021). Digital archiving in archaeology: the state of the art. Internet Archaeology, 58. https://doi.org/10.11141/ia.58.23 


Kintigh, K.; Altschul, J.; Beaudry, M.; et al. (2014). Grand Challenges for Archaeology. American Antiquity, 79, 5-24. 
description: This presentation was possible thanks to SEADDA Cost Action (CA18128), funded by the European Union.

The research took part within the Open Science Spain research project Ciencia Abierta en España: una aproximación global para evaluar su grado de implementación (RTI2018-094360-B-I00), funded by the Spanish Government, and it was supported by an FPI grant (Formación de Personal Investigador) given by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (MCINN) to the author, Sabina Batlle Baró (PRE2019-091286).