Workshop: Advancing data management and sharing practices in the anthropological sciences: Milwaukee, WI - October 2018

American Association Of Physical Anthropologists, Herndon VA

Investigators

Abstract

The anthropological sciences study human culture and biology using a range of methods that have been developed within and outside of anthropology. These methods result in many different types of data, including not only digital records and measurements, but also bones and fossils, environmental samples, DNA and other biomarkers, and field notes. This award will support a workshop for researchers in biological anthropology and closely related fields to address this diversity of data and discuss best practices in data management and sharing. The workshop will build upon available reports and best practices from other disciplines, including cultural anthropology and archaeology, and cover issues that may be particularly salient in anthropological disciplines. Workshop outcomes will be shared with the academic community and will suggest a path forward for addressing specific data issues in greater detail. Improvements in data sharing in biological anthropology will allow for expanded collaborations within and across disciplines, and promote expanded access to scientific data and findings generated in federally- and privately-funded research. In this data workshop, approximately 30 participants from anthropology departments in the United States will convene in Milwaukee, WI, to address issues that impede more extensive data sharing and to identify resources that support sharing of the various data types generated within the subfields of biological anthropology. Research in biological anthropology generates a wide range of data and physical collections on the form, physiology, and behavior of humans and non-human primates. Such data include, but are not limited to, biological data stored digitally and/or as biosamples, fossil and skeletal measurements and images and the specimens themselves, paleoenvironmental data associated with human and non-human primate sites, and ethnographic and behavioral notes and records. Data may be linked to individual, short-term projects or long-term field sites that have been collecting waves of data over several decades, and may come with ethical and logistical limitations related to issues such as human subjects research, international collaborations, and preservation of physical collections. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.