Digital Lab

The central step of digitisation involves the transfer of analogue research objects into digital, machine-readable research data. Inherent in the associated datafication is the fact that socio-cultural data - which is often characterised by a high degree of ambiguity and heterogeneity - must always be modelled and represented in a formal way in order to be made accessible to computer-aided analyses in the first place. This translation step, which often involves annotation and enrichment of the data in addition to indexing, represents a central challenge that is the subject of much debate in the digital humanities.

Specific sucject areas:

• Digital recording (scanning, audio and video digitisation)
• Semi-automatic transcription (OCR, speech-to-text, image-to-text, etc.)
• Provision of various data formats and corresponding viewers / search functions
• Annotation and enrichment (object recognition, segmentation, feature extraction for similarity searches, etc.)
• Semi-automatic cataloguing and keywording
• Clustering and aggregation of metadata
• Linking of data records (to each other / to standardised data)
• Quality control (schema level, plausibility checks, outlier analyses...)
• Digital source criticism

After the successful digitisation and datafication of research objects, exciting questions arise regarding the use of digital tools and methods, for example when it comes to finding quantitative patterns in the previously modelled data and validating them against qualitative domain knowledge of experts. In this field of work, analytical methods with a quantitative-empirical focus (e.g. in the sense of cultural analytics) are to be expected, but also innovative approaches in the field of tension between close and distant reading, which are often referred to as scalable reading. In the latter case, methods of explorative data analysis and Visual Analytics are particularly suitable.

Specific sucject areas:

• Overview of existing offers of digital tool (DH tool directories)
• Application and development of quantitative methods in the spirit of cultural analytics / computational social science / humanities data science
• Analytical approaches in the sense of close / distant / scalable reading
• Adaptation of methods from other domains (e.g. cultural evolution)
• Method evaluation (qualitative and quantitative)
• Reflection on methods, epistemological implications and theory development
• Visualisation / Visual Analytics
• Explorative tools and information systems (Research Software Engineering)
• Immersive and interactive technologies for the humanities and social sciences (Humanist-Computer-Interaction, Immersive Humanities)

For the archiving and publication of research data, the Dataverse-based repository „GLOBEDATA“  is available to the research projects based at the centre, which will be transferred to regular operation at the end of 2022. As a specialised repository, GlobeData is also open to researchers from other institutions and from all over the world. In line with the "distributed archiving" approach, metadata can also be mapped in more specialised repositories or, conversely, fed into GlobeData from those repositories via harvesting. Between the publication of research data and pure (closed) archiving for review purposes, the repository also offers tiered variants such as the targeted release of data for specific persons or temporary embargoes. The coordinated curation, collection and provision of research data via GlobeData also offers the opportunity for the targeted reuse of data in new research projects at the centre and, of course, the conception of new projects based on existing databases.

Specific subject areas:

• Quality assurance of the data records
• Verification of legal requirements
• Ensuring comprehensible documentation
• Description of data records with standardised metadata

Research data management has received increased attention in the academic world in recent years. Across disciplines, researchers are called upon to address the question of the whereabouts of their data and materials after the completion of a project or publication and, if necessary, to make them available to others for review or subsequent use (see point 3). This poses particular challenges for the humanities, social sciences and cultural studies. The fundamental aim of this working area is therefore to develop and support an appropriate RDM for the networks and projects based at the Centre.
When working with digital data, questions regarding the handling of this data are fundamentally relevant in all phases of the research process. It is generally a prerequisite for later archiving and, where applicable, subsequent use by others, but some aspects such as data documentation or legal issues are also relevant and useful independently of this.

Konkrete Themenbereiche:

• Creation of data management plans in research projects
• Setting up technical services (e.g. storage, backup, encryption)
• Advice on various RDM topics (e.g. data documentation and organisation, legal aspects)
• Archiving and, if applicable, publication of research data and materials in the centre's own repository GlobeData
• Advice on RDM for funding applications

See also:

Eva Ommert (2023): Forschungsdatenmanagement im SFB 1199. SFB 1199 Working Paper 39. https://research.uni-leipzig.de/~sfb1199/publications/1-1-2023_sfb_-working-paper_-forschungsdatenmanagement-10-mar-2023/