Data Reuse Among Digital Humanities Scholars: a Qualitative Study of Practices, Challenges and Opportunities

Scholarship is more and more data-driven, and as digital tools continue to evolve, sound data use practices among scholars are now essential for scientific discovery. Data reuse has become central to an emerging cultural push towards a more open way of doing science.

This study investigated the challenges and opportunities in reusing research data among digital humanities (DH) scholars. Its findings may serve as a case study for how disciplinary practices influence the ways in which researchers reuse data. The aim of the study was to enhance current thinking and provide insight for data, information and library professionals who work at the intersection of the humanities and data. Data were collected using interviews.

An analysis of semi-structured interviews with 12 DH scholars working at universities, research centres and cultural or heritage organizations around the world was performed, and found that lack of time and resources, inconsistent data practices, technical training gaps, labour intensity and difficulties in finding data were the most challenging aspects of data reuse. Findings also revealed a number of enabling factors in data reuse chiefly collaboration and autonomous learning as a feature of DH. The results indicate a gap between data reusers and data sharers - low rates of sharing reduce the amount of findable and accessible data available for reuse. Both data reusers and data sharers must begin to see themselves as embedded into the research data lifecycle within the research infrastructure. The recommendations includes cultural changes to policy, education, and infrastructure. Other interventions could include boosting data literacy, developing self-paced RDM training, improving data discovery systems, rewarding data sharing, and creation of data stewardship networks.