1 of 16

Train the Trainer Course

Skills for the Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) thematic area

2 of 16

Module 1:

Planning: doing research in the SSH OS landscape

3 of 16

Data in the SSH

4 of 16

Learning Objectives

Name Surname | Event | Date

Describe the current policy landscape that shapes knowledge production in SSH

Identify Open Science practices in SSH

Recognise SSH specificities within the research workflow during knowledge production from an ethical, legal and methodological perspective

Describe what the research data management requirements and standards are

5 of 16

Content

Name Surname | Event | Date

SSH specificities

Data in the SSH
Data in the Humanities
Data in Social Sciences

6 of 16

Can you tell us what type of research data/materials you usually work with?

[Provide link to a board app for participants’ input]

7 of 16

Data in the SSH

Data as a process
Data as a record obtained via a method
Data as anything formalized through a language
Data as books, corpora, codices
Data as a Document

Adapted from:

1) Giglia, E. (2021, January 28). CO-OPERAS: FAIR data in the SSH. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4475487 - CC BY-SA 4.0

2) Giglia, E. (2021, September 15). FAIR data in the Humanities. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5510388 - CC BY 4.0

8 of 16

Data in the SSH

Humanities

“We could then define data in the humanities broadly as all materials and assets scholars collect, generate and use during all stages of the research cycle”

ALLEA Report, 2020 – Sustainable and FAIR data sharing in the humanities.

Social Science

In the social sciences, "data" refers to quantitative or qualitative information collected through observation, measurement, or inquiry that is used to understand, interpret, and analyse human behaviour, social structures, and societal trends.

All underlying materials in your study – Open Research Europe

In social sciences, data are stated as values or facts, together with their accompanying study design, code books, research reports, etc. and are used by researchers for the purpose of secondary analysis. At one extreme, economics and demography have been heavily quantitative materials or observations. Sociology and, more recently, political science, fall between these two extremes. The change in research orientation in the subject can be seen with changing data, especially with data relating to public opinion.

In humanities, the text such as Biblical materials or Shakespeare's drama deals with a fixed quantity of data represented by a finite amount of text to be interpreted. Clashing interpretations may be irresolvable, since each interpretation views the text differently, while the text to be interpreted may be finite and fixed. However, in sciences, the total text is to be interpreted and the text of data is not fixed before interpretation. The text of fact is constantly expanding. Scientists not only observe facts but also use instruments to generate more systematic data.

Is there a way to create a framework, and a reasoning on what to include for example in a data management plan?

9 of 16

Question

Do these definitions represent your perspective of what data is in SSH?

10 of 16

What is Data in the Social Sciences and Humanities research?

11 of 16

Data in the Humanities– a taxonomy

Edmond, J. (Ed.) (2020). Digital Technology and the Practices of Humanities Research. Open Book Publishers.

Print publications

Electronic/ Digital

Single or collected/curated primary sources

Software, Code

[patents/licences]

[ephemera]

12 of 16

Data in the Digital Humanities

Arnold, M., Valencia, O., & Arènes, C. (2022, May 9). Humanities and FAIR data. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6531506 - CC BY 4.0

Metadata

Tabular Data

Structured Text

Non-structured text

Image files

Digitised Manuscripts

Sound files

Maps

Relational database

13 of 16

Data in the Social Sciences

Observational

Experimental

Simulation

Survey data

Records

Secondary

Jeng, W., He, D., & Oh, J. S. (2016). Toward a conceptual framework for data sharing practices in social sciences: A profile approach. Proceedings of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 53(1), 1-10. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/pra2.2016.14505301037

14 of 16

Data in the Social Sciences

Personal/Sensitive data

Quantitative/Qualitative

CESSDA Training Team (2017 - 2022). CESSDA Data Management Expert Guide. Bergen, Norway: CESSDA ERIC.

Retrieved from https://dmeg.cessda.eu/ - CC BY-SA 4.0

15 of 16

Data in the SSH

Image from: https://content.open-research-europe.ec.europa.eu/story/open-data-101-for-humanities-and-social-sciences-research/page/4/1

16 of 16

Thank you!�Questions?

[Trainer’s email address]