Ultimately, the “authors” are the ones mentioned in the masthead
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Introduction
Having defined the three levels of authorship involvement, we need to define the criteria through which credit will be assigned.
In defining the levels in which the categories of autors fit, we followed a losely chronological sequence:
- the system level (design and programming) must be established before data are entered;
- next comes the documentary gathering of the data;
- and finally there is a critical review of the data in order to arrive at a comprehensive sysnthesis.
The final assignment follows a reverse sequential order:
- the main authors, as the ones who bear the ultimate responsibility for the publication: they oversee the final critical review of all the data and provide the overarching synthesis; in this, they are assisted by contributing authors who provide substantial portions of the narrative and/or are responsible for specific sectors of the corpus;
- the base authors are the ones responsible for each of the myriad observations that are incorporated in the record: it is on this corpus that everything else depends, with regard to both the editorial and especially at the excavation level;
- the persons responsible for the design and programming, hence for the overall functioning of the system, may be considered as the background authors.
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Overview
What is then the degree of visibility one can reserve for these authorial role? How are they credited? In what follows, I will define these different degrees of recognition, indicating where crediting is found, which can be summarized graphically in this chart:
| categories
| crediting
|
| masthead
| editorial
| excavations
| system
|
| 1.main and contributing authors
| xxx
| xxx
| xxx
| -
|
| 2.base authors
| -
| xxx
| xxx
| -
|
| 3.background authors
| -
| -
| -
| xxx
|
Back to top: Authors crediting: the unit books
1. Main and contributing authors
The main authors are the persons who
- have coordinated the entire body of data into a unified whole, assuring its overall coherence;
- have produced a critical overall assessment of the book in all its component parts; and
- have written some or most of the overall discursive sections that relate to the synthetic view on the left hand side portion of the digital book.
There are generally more than one main author for any given book, particularly in unit digital books, though occasionally only one is found (as in the case of J3). Also, thematic books (like the current one) are often with a single author.
They are mentioned in the masthead (home page and front matter), and their specific contibutions are outlined in the editorial support page and/or the excavation staff page.
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The masthead includes two pages: the home page, which serves as the cover page of a printed book, and the Front Matter, which serves as the title page and the copyright page of a printed book.
Together, they provide the essential authorial information, i. e., they credit the persons who bear the ultimate responsibility for the publication.
In a printed book, the masthead would include the cover and the title pages. The cover page is often a shorter verson of the title page, and it is regularly followed by the copyright pages. These distinctions reflect substantive issues, and as such they must be retained in a website that aims to have a precise bibliographical status. We formalize this in the form of (a) the home page and (b) the front matter page.
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1.Editorial
The credits on the home page of individual unit books aim to identify the highest levels of involvement and responsibility. Conditions vary greatly from one book to the other, but in principle the major roles are as follows.The main author is the person who
- has coordinated the entire body of data into a unified whole, assuring its overall coherence;
- has produced a critical overall assessment of the book in all its component parts; and
- has written some or most of the overall discursive sections that relate to the synthetic view on the left hand side portion of the digital book.
General supervision is at times required when the main editor comes from outside the project, meaning that he or she has not taken part in the excavation process. This person shares in the responsibility of guaranteeing the overall coherence of the finished digital book.
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2.Excavations
In terms of actual work on any single digital book, the excavation director and the unit director should in principle be regularly listed as the main authors. In terms of the overall conceptual structure that organizes the data and makes the whole enterprise possible, the person(s) in charge of the system design and the programs should also in principle be listed with the main authors.
In practice, two significant variable enter into play. The first pertains especially to the older units, excavated in the past,in which case it often happens that the unit director is no longer available to undertake the final editorial work. If so, the unit director is retained as main author only when either the record had already developed to a point where it had acquired a significant coherence of its own, or where he or she remains available for consultation.
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3.System
The second point pertains to the system design and the programs. Once the system progresses beyond its formative stages, and the first several digital books are published, it is expected that the system will be sufficiently well defined to serve as a general presupposition for the publication, so that explicit authorship responsibility and recognition will no longer be necessary.
Typically, a ceramics editor plays a much greater role than other typological specialists, not only in the field, but also in the production of the final digital book: not only is the sheer amount of data on a very different scale than other typological classes; ceramic analysis also permeates the entire process of excavation and interpretation.
For an example see the home page of A6.
home page of A16.
The home page also gives as short description of the content of the website, in a way that is siilar to what is found on the back cover of a printed book.
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2. Base authors: Excavations and editorial support
Two separate pages within the synthetic portion of a unit book give the names of all individuals who have contributed to the realization of the book.
In the INTRODUCTION section to gthe digital book as a whole, a page on authorship describes psecifically the roles of all main and contributing authors.
For an example, see the relevant page for A16.
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Bylines
Every entry in any given website is date and linked to a specific author, in two distinct ways.
1. A page in the discursive style gives the date and the full name of either a single author (e.g., the J5 overview) or of several authors (e, g., the A16 overview).
1. Each individual entry in the segmented narrative carries the date and the initials of the person repsonsible for the observaition. For example, the seal impression A15.259
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Profiles
For each individual listed anywhere in the websites there is a link to a full profile, which gives the full detail of the individual mentioned.
In a full page, the name is spelled in full, as with Lorenzo Crescioli in the page from J1 just mentioned.
In a record, only the initials are given, as with jW for James Walker in the page from A15 just mentioned.
It should be mentioned in particular that each profile page carries a full list of all the records fro ehich that particular individual is responsible, see for example in James Walker profile the entries for OH2.
Excavation staff
In the SYNTHETIC VIEW section, a page dedicated the staff gives the names and tasks of all individuals involved. For an example see the staff page for unit J1.
Note that:
- Every page in the synthetic portion of any website carries the name of the author, see for example Lorenzo Crescioli in the overview page for J2 .
- In even greater detail, every record in the analytical portion of any website also carries the name of the author, see for example James Walker in the first record of A15, feature 198.
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