Accessibility and data reuse are synonymous with FAIR data principles but how to handle, share, and reuse data can involve great heterogeneity and complexity and is often dependent on institutional or individual researcher requirements. Knowing how to access and reuse data responsibly has been a priority in the development of the project’s Arches database. MAEASaM Digital Data Coordinator, Orhun Uğur, explains the importance of the Arches Demo Data Policy and provides useful tips on how to access data responsibly.
For the lifecycle of any research data, including cultural and natural heritage data, to be fulfilled, it must be shared and reused. Data comes alive when it is accessed and engaged with, rather than left unused.
The project, working with national heritage custodians and collaborators, has been preparing heritage data digitally with great care to make it accessible and meaningful. From planning the initial data workflow involving the collection of data, cataloguing and digitising, cleaning and curating, organising and validating, to being ingested into the Arches repository. The Demo group of collections have been collated from existing publicly available records including information about African heritage sites that are on the UNESCO World Heritage and Tentative lists as well as national gazetted sites.
We have been very mindful not to simply release these data unprotected into the wild, wild web (www). We safeguard it with required metadata elements and share it under a clear Data Policy which explains how to use it responsibly.
Metadata is the first piece of information that an end-user will encounter when opening a site report in Arches. For example, the report page below is of the Thimlich Ohinga Archaeological Site (MAEASaM ID: SITE-KEN-00001012) in Kenya. All site related information is presented in a ‘metadata:data’ structure, including elements such as an ID, name and name type, site description and other descriptive attributes about the site.
An important metadata group in the Arches Site Record is the Copyright and Access Group and provides rights-related information including the name of the Rights holder, the type of copyright licence attributed to the data, and the level of access (Table 1). In the Demo instance, data are made available to the public. However, the Arches platform also supports closed access and restricted access options.
Table 1: A summary of the MAEASaM Copyright and Access group in Arches Demo Database.
Rights holder |
Defines ownership and gives credit to the contributor (the rights holder). If a public user requires more information about the source or to provide feedback, contact the contributing institute in addition to viewing the repository entry. Resource Models |
Licence |
We follow the Creative Commons licences to show end users how to interact with the record, how it can be reused and what restrictions are applied. The default licence for the MAEASaM Arches Demo repository is CC BY-NC-SA , which requires end users to give attribution, prohibits commercial use, and mandates sharing under the same terms. Contributors, however, are free to adjust the licence for individual records if necessary. |
Access level |
Permissions can be set based on the requirements of partner institutions’ including internal policies regarding the sensitivity of data. Our vision is to make data as open as possible in line with the FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) principles, but it is equally important to govern access ethically according to the CARE (Collective Benefit, Authority to Control, Responsibility, Ethics) framework. |
Demo Data Policy
The project Arches Demo Data Policy explains metadata use and outlines the legal framework for the Demo repository. It includes other important details about the MAEASaM project background, how the data are processed, preserved and shared, and how the public can get in touch with the us. One of the most useful features for reusability in the document is a clear citation guide:
In the case of Thimlich Ohinga Archaeological Site, the citation would follow:
Coming soon…
Currently, the policy covers the Demo instance of the repository. Further improvements to both our metadata schema and data policy are planned for the next updated release, particularly around access and reuse of data. The policy is also continuously being updated as the project evolves.
MAEASaM takes responsibility for managing and sharing this information with the public, while end users should in turn respect both the data and the conditions of its use.
Remember to access responsibly!