ArcaDIIS - Archaeological Data Infrastructure for Interoperability and Sharing

An editorial hub for archaeological data

Recent directives, both national and European, highlight the importance of adopting the principles of open science (publications and data). However, access to primary data in archaeology and archaeoscience, major challenge for researchers, is still limited.

The LaMPEA, within the network of archaeological teams at Aix-Marseille University and the ARKAIA Institute, is leading the development of the digital infrastructure ArcaDIIS for the interoperability and sharing of material and immaterial data of Mediterranean archaeology and related disciplines in the fields of environment, archaeometry, and heath and life sciences. Conceived as an editorial hub, offering collaborative spaces for work and enrichment, it aims to meet the needs for management of the resources produced by any research project (from its elaboration to the production of results) in order to increase its visibility and reuse.

Optimized data management

ArcaDIIS is based on the development of a modular web application based on semantic web standards and developed by the company Mnemotix, socio-economic partner of the project. In addition to the RDF/XML structuring of the integrated data, the tool proposes the aggregation, indexing and maintenance of terminological repositories corresponding to the SKOS recommendation of the W3C, and is able to use disciplinary vocabularies, in particular the PACTOLS. Thanks to the adoption of the Linked Open Data principle, ArcaDIIS allows the connection to other remote sources, accessible by web service or API. This promotes visibility and international integration of the processed data.

As a federative tool, first and foremost for the archaeological teams of Aix-Marseille University, ArcaDIIS supports the data producer in the structuring and qualification of its datasets as well as in their publication, by enriching them with metadata and semantic descriptions, thus enabling specific publication formats to be generated. Emphasis will be placed on the export of data papers, a peer-reviewed scientific publication format whose purpose is to describe and contextualize a dataset, thus ensuring its visibility, reusability and traceability through indexing and citation capability (DOI). It thus contributes to enhancing the value of the scientific analysis stages.

ArcaDIIS allows the interconnection of research projects in the Mediterranean area, in connection with the landscape of national infrastructures on Digital Humanities and European programmes. Furthermore, it aims to offer to all stakeholders in archaeology a space for the perpetuation and enhancement of their resources, particularly for museums and the territorial offices concerned.

Expected impact

• Increase the efficiency of the management of resources of various kinds, produced in quantity by the studies of archaeological sites and materials, thanks to the development of tools facilitating the processes of data publication;
• allow the reuse of data, with due respect for rights (licences), in order to stimulate scientific production and exchanges;
• ensure data enhancement and traceability through publications that guarantee data quality while acknowledging the authorship of research (data papers, Data Management Plans, working papers, national and international calls for projects, etc.) by systematically assigning unique and persistent identifiers (PID);
• ensure, by making primary data available, the transparency of the scientific process, a guarantee of honesty towards peers and the general public;
• allowing simple and universal access to didactic content, with a visual interface allowing user-friendly access to resources (development of APIs and visualization and search interfaces - GUIs).

ArcaDIIS is part of an open science approach and facilitates the evaluation of the different stages of the research.