invitation_letter.md

Invitation to edited volume: Perspectives to Paradata

Feedback

Thank you for your abstract. We have read it and discussed it in the editorial group and apart from saying a big thank you and really giving you a go ahead for writing a complete draft for the June workshop, we would like you to consider the following points.

[...] We are also encouraging you to introduce the practical situation where paradata is relevant for the readership clearly enough that even readers outside your own discipline can follow the rationale of your writing. Remember to describe explicitly (but briefly) your disciplinary (scholarly and practical) and research context, research front and motivate the focus of the discussion. Please also state explicitly the relevance/implications of the results from and for your practical case/perspective.

In addition, we would like to direct your attention to a couple of general issues. Our volume will appear in a book series that relates to knowledge management. This means that we are going to discuss the chapters in the introduction and the epilogue/conclusions from a KM perspective and KM researchers and professionals are also, in a very broad sense, one of the major target audiences of the volume as a whole. In a very broad sense, KM encompasses different aspects relevant to the management, governance, administration, curation and facilitation of information, knowledge, data, records etc. and related processes and practises. This does not mean that you need to assume a KM perspective in the chapter BUT if there are relevant management (or similar) aspects that stem from the discussion in the chapter, you are free to make a note of them.

As an additional remark, considering the interdisciplinarity of the volume we encourage you to illustrate the point you make in your chapter using a concrete problem that exists and provide enough information on the research (and practical) context you are writing about that a person outside of your own field can follow your argument. Moreover, remember to motivate the relevance of your findings and/or conclusions again considering the interdisciplinary audience.

Finally, we have included brief author instructions in the attachment including preliminary information about the forthcoming author workshop.

We are planning a multi-disciplinary edited volume, preliminarily titled “Perspectives to Paradata - Research and Practices of Documenting Data Processes”, on documentation of data making processes. We have found your work on [insert here specification] exciting and relevant to the topic, and wonder if you would be interested in contributing? Your chapter would make up a key component in a set of case studies. The aim of the volume is to provide a cross-disciplinary run-through of perspectives to the phenomenon and concept of paradata. With paradata we mean data that describes processes (appr. as in Couper, 2000, cf. metadata that describes data Pomerantz, 2015). In order to achieve cohesion while maintaining complexity and specificity across the volume’s contributions, we are asking all authors to use the following steps to guide the work with individual chapters:

1. Take a starting point in a data making effort that you have studied or have experience with. In your case that could relate to [something the person knows about].
2. Describe the method for process description and any documentation that was created as a part of this process description. Excerpts, figures, tables, or imagery can be used to underline main points or aspects of the process description and documentation (or the lack thereof).
3. Discuss the different uses and significance(s) of the process description and documentation in its setting of creation and potential data-reuse scenarios.
4. Use as you see fit the notion of paradata to discuss the process description and documentation. The notion of paradata can be used to e.g., to highlight certain aspects of the process description and documentation or its use(s); to establish relationships or fault lines between the process documentation and other data categories; to put into focus the tasks and workflows involved in creating the process documentation. Approximate chapter length 5 000 words + references. Details will follow. We are currently negotiating to have the volume published in the International Association for Knowledge Management IAKM book series “Knowledge Management and Organizational Learning”, published by Springer. The volume will be published in Open Access. The book processing charge will be covered by the CAPTURE project (funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme grant agreement No 818210). We are more than happy to discuss details of your possible contribution and answer any questions you might have. If you would like to co-author your chapter together with a colleague, you are welcome to do so. Just let us know the co-author or co-authors of your choice. We are looking forward to receiving your expression of interest at your earliest convenience.Approximate submissions timeline Abstract submissions: January 23rd, 2022 (negotiable upon expression of interest) Feedback on abstracts: February 2022 Full chapters: Early Fall 2022 Feedback on full chapters: Late Fall 2022 Revisions due: Early 2023 Copyediting: Spring 2023 Proofs: Early Summer 2023 Book is published: Early Fall 2023

References

Couper, M. P. (2000). Usability evaluation of computer-assisted survey instruments. Social Science Computer Review, 18(4), 384–396. Pomerantz, J. (2015). Metadata. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Sincerely, Isto Huvila, Olle Sköld & Lisa Börjesson