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Places
Given the complexity of the authorial involvement, a proper assignment of credit emerges as even more complex than in comparable publishing enterprises. It should be noted that, in defining the levels in which the categories of authors fit, we had followed a losely chronological sequence:
- first, the system level (design and programming) must be established before data are entered;
- next comes the documentary gathering of the data, followed by
- an analytical review of the data;
- finally, there is comprehensive and organic presentation of the data.
The final assignment of credit follows instead a reverse sequential order:
- first are 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;
- their work relies on that of the base authors who provided the myriad observations that are incorporated in the record, on which everything else depends;
- all of this rests in turn on the the design and programming by the background authors, on whose work the overall functioning of the system rests.
There are four distinct places where credit is given, seeking to allow proper visibility while at the same time avoiding an impossible crowding of the text. This can be summarized as follows:
| category
| place
|
| 1. main
| masthead
|
| 2. contributing
| editorial page
|
| 3. base
| primary data page
|
| 4. background
| system websites
|
We will review each of these “places,” using A16 as an example.
Back to top: Crediting authorship in the unit books
1. Masthead: main and associate authors
The masthead provides the essential authorial information, i. e., it credits the main and associate authors who bear the ultimate responsibility for the publication.
The term “masthead” refers, in a printed book, to the cover and the title pages. The cover page is often a shorter version 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.
In the unit digital books, we formalize this in the form of (a) the home page and (b) the front matter page.
A variety of mastheads is thus possible, of which we can cite here a few examples:
- Single main author: J3, J5
- Two critical reviewers and excavators: A6
- Excavator as critical reviewer, second critical reviewer and other collaborators: A16
Back to top: Crediting authorship in the unit books
2. Editorial page: contributing authors
A separate page gives the names of all those who have contributed, on different levels, to the final publication of the volume.
Back to top: Crediting authorship in the unit books
3. Documentary page: base authors
Yet another page gives the names of all the members of the excavation staff.
The personal identification with the minutest of observations derives from a fundamental principle underlying our whole intellectual effort. Thus the attribution of authorship to every atom of the data set is not a nicety (recognizing everybody’s work), nor is it a pedantic redundancy (inflating the record with useless details). It serves rather the conviction that the best measure of objectivity is in allowing a calibration of the observers’ skills. In this manner, the dated attribution of authorship that accompanies each of the tens of thousand of individual records serves a philosophical purpose, one might say. It is a modest but specific contribution to a concrete epistemology of the archaeological record. Each atom of the system is, truly, written in the first person. And yet it is, at the same time, public from the very first moment it enters the record.
Back to top: Crediting authorship in the unit books
4. System websites: background authors
The authors of the design system and the programmers are mentioned in a special page of the UGR digital book.
These authors are not credited in the individual unit books. They are essential for the functioning of the whole system, but the credit is reserved for separate digital books where they e ✓plain in detail their work and how it contributes to the UGR as a whole.
I take responsibility for the system design (which is describeed in this section of the UGR website) and for the Grammar.
The currennt set of programs has been written by Bernardo Forni, who will produce a digital book describing them in detail. For now, please refer to the history of prograqms written for the project in Cybernetica Mesopotamica (1982-2010, 2016-2021 and 2021-23).
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 e ✓pected 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 e ✓cavation 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.
Back to top: Crediting authorship in the unit books
Profiles
Clicking on the initials in the byline, one gets to the profile of the person in question, for example lR for Laura Ramos. On this page, scrolling down to “Data authored” one gets a complete list of all files and entries authored by that individual; for example, in A16 Laura Ramos authored 12,633 entries, each one of which is given in full on tghis page.
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 e ✓ample in James Walker profile the entries for OH2.
E ✓cavation staff
In the SYNTHETIC VIEW section, a page dedicated the staff gives the names and tasks of all individuals involved. For an e ✓ample 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 e ✓ample James Walker in the first record of A15, feature 198.