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Documentation

Definition

The descriptive account of the process of creating or curating information. This record accompanies the publication of such information. It provides contextualising information from a disciplinary point of view.

Definition source: Combatting Bias definition.

Stakes

part of: opacity

related to: transparency

Creating extensive documentation is crucial to ensure adequate contextualisation of your research and transparency around research practices. This creates accountability as well.

Where does it occur in the lifecycle?

All stages

Examples

Good-better-best practices

Good Better Best
Ensure that your dataset is accompanied by documentation that is suitable for your discipline and type of dataset. Include versioning in all documentation to ensure transparency and encourage re-evaluation. “Evaluate local descriptive practices and policies using the criteria: Which audiences does this description center? Which audiences does it exclude? For academic archives, this could look like making description more comprehensible for undergraduates, genealogists/family historians, and local community members. For archives collecting Spanish-language material, this could mean considering whether English-language finding aids are serving users. This could also look like minimizing archival jargon.”1
“Do not use passive voice when describing oppressive relationships”2 Make documentation an integral part of your research lifecycle. This ensures that the documentation is representative of all the work undertaken, and all the decisions made.

Resources

  1. Taken from Archives for Black Lives, Anti-Racist Description Resources (2019), p. 4. ↩

  2. Taken from Archives for Black Lives, Anti-Racist Description Resources (2019), pp. 3-4. ↩