Research data survey – Newsletter 18

Survey on research data in Asia related studies

Dear Asian studies researcher,
Dear CrossAsia user,

The current newsletter is all about research data. Research data is becoming increasingly important due to the digital change in scientific research and the use of computer-based methods. This applies not only to the humanities, cultural and social sciences in general, but also to Asian studies, where comparatively little has been done so far in contrast to other disciplines. In the debate on digital research data there are three important aspects to be mentioned:

• The principle for good scientific practice and making the research basis comprehensible.
• Research data as citable data publications that can not only serve as a basis for the research question and the context in which they were created, but are also available for a wide variety of alternative usages.
• The presentation of the research data that can be used with digital tools and can, for example, generate further, probably unforeseen findings by “improving the use” of the data, e.g. via visualisations and statistical methods.

In addition, the discussion about digital research data also concerns several legal, ethical and organisational aspects, such as allowing other researchers to re-use the data, obtaining e.g. study participants’ consent to the subsequent use of the data, and the protection of personal rights and other sensitive data.

The topic of research data, including how to deal with it, is on the agenda of scientific committees and research foundations. For example, the German Research Foundation (DFG) calls on researchers, when submitting their project proposal, to include a concept for how to deal with research data in the respective project.

The Specialised Information Service Asia (FID Asia) project, which receives substantial financial support from the DFG, has the aim to support the specialised community researching on Asia in managing research data and to initiate a debate on the subject within the research community. We also take into account the National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI), which is currently being established. We would like to ask the Asian studies community to draw attention to the needs and special features of research data so that we can help communicate these, so that these will be taken into account in the development of the infrastructural and technical framework of the NFDI.

In order to initiate this dialogue, FID Asia, together with the research associations (DGA, DMG, DVCS, GJF, VfK, VSJF), would like to learn from your expertise. We would like to know what you do with your data in the research process, what experiences and opinions you have regarding re-use as well as the creation and provision of research data.

We would be very glad if you would take a moment to complete this survey. To answer the survey will take about 20 minutes. We will publish the results of the survey in the CrossAsia Blog if there is sufficient participation.

The survey is open until: 8 April 2019

Further interesting and new developments from CrossAsia (only in German)

• Report on the workshop “Research data in Asia related studies”
• German Research Foundation continues its funding of the project Specialised Information Service Asia (FID Asien)
• Berlin State Library’s Union Catalogue of Indonesian Manuscripts

Recently licensed databases and trials (only in German)

• Trial: Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) Daily Reports, 1941-1996
  – we would be glad to receive your feedback on this trial!
• „China Rare Book Reprinted Collection“ and „Early Twentieth Century Book in China, 1912-1949“
• Jinbutsu Sôsho and Asahi Shimbun regional pages
• China and the Modern World – two Gale databases

Thank you very much for your support.

Your FID Asia team