By: Lisa Börjesson/CAPTURE Project

Although the mantra of the CAPTURE project staff is that we’re curious about everything that could possibly count as information about data production and management processes, the researchers and professionals we meet have a different interest: What is paradata? And can you tell us how it relates to metadata? Most are less than satisfied with our indeterminate answers which are based on our mapping of the multiple meanings and usages of the term in archaeology and cultural heritage (forthcoming paper): paradata is a useful but also slippery  notion that serves an array of purposes. Disappointing as our analytical take on the term may be for the ones who could have used a more clear-cut definition like yesterday, the interest in the term stimulates our continued work.

Some time has passed since CApturing Paradata for documenTing data creation and Use for the REsearch of the future (CAPTURE) was first introduced here at the Digital Humanities Uppsala Blog. Since then, Olle Sköld and Lisa Börjesson have joined the team as researchers. Also, we’re currently recruiting one fully funded Ph.D. student. Plus, in the coming years we’ll be recruiting two postdocs to the project. More on this later on!

In terms of research, two of the project’s larger data collection campaigns are at early stages. Firstly, we’re interviewing both makers and users of research data to better understand the production and use of information that detail data-production processes (‘paradata’) . Tips of possible informants, that is researchers with repeated experiences of depositing data and researchers with experiences of recurring analytical reuse of research data, are warmly welcome. Secondly, we’re designing a survey of paradata practices that will be open for respondents during fall 2020.

Image: Mikael Wallerstedt, Uppsala University

Interested in hearing more about our work?

This project is funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme grant agreement No 818210.