Open Humanities Data Forum

What counts as data in the Humanities? What are the advantages of data sharing? How can the creators of data receive credit through academic publications? Over the past few years the interest in data publication best practices for Humanities research has increased significantly, also thanks to the growth of data journals dedicated to Humanities research like the Journal of Open Humanities Data. Within the Humanities, linguistics has a long tradition in data creation, curation, and management. The Linguistics Data Interest Group of the Research Data Alliance has recently worked to identify specific issues related to data in the discipline of linguistics. The Tromsø Recommendations on Data Citation in Linguistics were produced by the Linguistics Data IG to help scholars navigate the complexity of linguistic data and form accurate citations, thereby fostering reproducibility and greater exposure of linguistic data. A crucial and related effort to generate greater recognition of the value of linguistic data is the development of standards for the assessment of data collections.

This second Open Humanities Data Forum will explore the broader view of data sharing and publishing in Humanities research, and provide an introduction to the Journal of Open Humanities Data (JOHD). It will also present the journal’s upcoming special collection Language Documentation: Assessment and Recognition, which aims to outline what an effective peer-review process for linguistic data might look like, and how such a system would foster better recognition for these materials in academic evaluation systems such as in hiring, promotion, and tenure. The special collection welcomes contributions that explore assessment criteria and procedures, as well as peer- and curator-authored reviews of documentary linguistic materials.