The TerraLID project

A research data infrastructure for Pb isotope data

TerraLID develops a community-driven digital research data infrastructure for lead isotope data in archaeology that makes is easy to publish, access and work with lead isotope data. It intends to maximise their findability, accessibility, interoperability and reusability, i.e., making the data FAIR with the development of a suitable database while trying to implement the CARE Principles for Indigenous Data Governance as much as possible. A web application provides the interface for submitting, accessing, and working with lead isotope data. In addition, data curation will be minimsed through automated checks and enrichment of metadata from others sources, making it easy to submit data to TerraLID and to maintain it. All other tools will be collected in a software toolbox to make them available to the community outside of TerraLID. Open Educational Resources provide information about all aspects of lead isotope data and their application in archaeology as well as about how to use TerraLID. TerraLID and all materials therein will be made available to the public under open licenses, meaning that software code will be open source, materials open access, and data in the database open access by default with reasonable access restrictions if necessary.

Ultimately, TerraLID aims towards transforming the scientific community in how it handles lead isotope data and to increase the reliability and reproducibility of these data and interpretations derived from them. Learn more about the motivation and vision of TerraLID…

Community-driven development

TerraLID will only be widely used by the community if it is meeting the community’s needs and expectations. Consequently, involving the community is an integral part of the development process. The TerraLID editors are internationally renowned community representatives and provide their expertise for specific regions or materials to make sure that a first draft of, e.g., the metadata profile meets already most needs of the scientific community. Afterwards, the draft will be shared with the entire community to gather their feedback and is accordingly revised. The TerraLID Core Team coordinates this process and is responsible for the technical implementation of the developed materials as well as for initiating the cycle for the creation of a revised version.

Swimlane diagram-like visualisation of the community-driven development process that TerraLID implements.

Schematic visualisation of the communit-driven process implemented in TerraLID. All icons taken from Font Awesome Free, owned by Fonticons, Inc. and licensed under CC-BY 4.0 International.

All members of the scientific community are invited to get involved in the development of TerraLID. The Core Team values all contributions and they will be duly acknowledged. If you are interested, please get in touch either by or by contacting a team member.

In addition to individual researchers, our partners ensure that TerraLID will be operative for at least 10 years. We teamed up with GFZ Data Services to ensure that any unpublished data submitted to TerraLID will be published as data publication first so that they are citable and credits are given to the respective authors when their data is used.

TerraLID is of course not a solitary endeavour but one of many efforts that shapes a better data future. Members of the Core Team are therefore active in several other initiatives on the national and international level that aim to increase the FAIRness of data. Learn more about our network…

History

Work initially started in 2018 as an effort within the research area Archaeometallurgy of the Deutsches Bergbau-Museum Bochum to create an unified lead isotope database. As work progressed, the idea was born to extend this initiative to the entire community. In 2021 and 2022, prototypes were launched as GlobaLID. TerraLID continues this work by extending GlobaLID and turning it into a sustainable research data infrastructure that is deeply embedded in the international scientific community. Please find the links to the GlobaLID prototypes, including the web application, in the menu bar at the top of the page.

Publications

You can find technical documentation and publications featuring TerraLID and GlobaLID under resources. We are looking forward to meeting you and presenting TerraLID to you on a conference.