[open-archaeology] Bibliography and Best Practices

[Matthew Law]

Hi Steko, 

Agree with this. 

in reference to points:

E: Provide examples of how to reference Open Data and to reinforce that dataset citation is also a demonstration of impact which will also help career progression (i.e. careers are no longer solely built around journal articles)

F: Still in a holding pattern on the "ethics" statement. The ball is still rolling but slowly. A community statement that shifts the ethical onus from the individual to the community (through agreed best practice) should remove one more barrier to submission. 

A


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Anthony Beck
Research Fellow
DART Project
School of Computing
University of Leeds

Follow me on Twitter: AntArch
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The DART project website is continually updated www.comp.leeds.ac.uk/dart
________________________________________
From: open-archaeology-bounces at lists.okfn.org [open-archaeology-bounces at lists.okfn.org] On Behalf Of Stefano Costa [stefano.costa at okfn.org]
Sent: 08 December 2010 09:57
To: Open Data in Archaeology Working Group
Subject: [open-archaeology] best practices

Hello,
a few days ago I started to sketch some very simple best practices for
publishing open archaeological data. I'd like to share those here and
possibly start a collaboratively-edited set of best practices.

     A. Explicit is better than implicit [*]. Describe your data and
        models. You can do that using a graphic or SQL schema, and
        explaining the meaning and rationale of your database fields.
     B. Use open formats. If unsure, keep it simple. CSV is better than
        XLS. Anything is better than DOC or PDF.
     C. Attach an open license to your work. Open Data Commons created 2
        good licenses for open data.
     D. Are you using proprietary software? Try to avoid proprietary
        formats like DWG or MDB, and opt for simpler, transparent
        formats like SQL.
     E. Are you afraid of losing your work? Publishing your data on the
        Web makes it easier for researchers to find and cite it [there
        are reliable figures about this kind of benefits from open
        access]
     F. Are you afraid of posing cultural heritage at risk? Start with
        unencumbered data, like analyses of artifacts, records of safely
        stored items, fuzzy location coordinates.

This short list might look simplistic in that it doesn't take into
account some of the problems that might arise in opening archaeological
data, but it could be a good start. I'm open to discussion and I would
be happy if we could publish a first public draft before the end of this
year.

Ciao
Stefano

[*] Python fans will spot the "import this" citation ;)

--
Stefano Costa
Coordinator, Working Group on Open Data in Archaeology
http://wiki.okfn.org/wg/archaeology
The Open Knowledge Foundation
http://www.okfn.org · http://opendefinition.org/