In an era of increasing emphasis on sustainability and growing resource constraints, CAA believes that any vibrant discipline must continually revisit its own foundations. In the field of Archaeology, working with legacy data provides a much less destructive means of researching the past and maximises the return on the resources originally invested in compiling them. Digital technologies have a particularly strong role to play in this regard. Thanks to their ability to synthesise large volumes of information, digital archaeology often applies new techniques unavailable to the original investigators. At the same time, legacy datasets often contain information that can no longer be recovered because the original archaeological evidence has been destroyed or is no longer accessible.
To this end, CAA is reintroducing an annual CAA Recycle Award that seeks to recognise those who breathe new life into old data.
The Award
The CAA Recycle Award will be presented jointly to:
- the best exemplar of data re-use at a CAA International Conference (the recycler), and
- the project or institution responsible for making the source data available (the originator).
Both winners will be entitled to display the CAA Recycle Award logo on their website and will be announced at the Annual General Meeting.
Terms and Conditions
- Any project may apply to be considered for the Recycle Award during the abstract submission process. The next opportunity to submit will be for the CAA2027 conference to be held from 17 to 20 May in Santiago, Chile. The call for papers for the conference will open in September of this year.
- Intention to be considered for the award must be made by the recycler, who must also indicate the origin of their data. Originators cannot submit on the recycler’s behalf.
- For consideration, the recycling project must have applied a digital technology or technique to the original data that was not anticipated by the originator in order to either a) discover new information from the dataset, or b) increase the value of the dataset to researchers and/or the general public. The abstract must describe both the digital technology or technique employed and the legacy dataset used. The recycler agrees to provide further information about the project before or during the conference at the request of the judging panel.
- The originator need not be present or submit a paper at the CAA2027 conference to be eligible for the award but will be notified after the Annual General Meeting. The originator of the data is considered to be the licence or copyright holder, the primary investigator of the originating project, or the repository in which the data is held.
- Either all, or a substantial majority, of the data used must have been compiled for purposes other than the recycling project. Some new data is permissible, especially where it adds qualitative value to the legacy data. The recycler may not be principal members of the originating project (but may be based at the same institution). The data must have been used with the originator’s consent, as determined either through licensing or personal communication. The data must, in principle, have been accessible to other parties for recycling. One-to-one arrangements (such as the passing of privately controlled data from supervisor to supervisee) will not be considered.
- The decision will be made by a panel of three judges representing the CAA Executive Steering Committee, Steering Committee, and Scientific Committee. It will be based on criteria of originality, utility, reflexivity, and the project’s ability to inspire and inform further activity. The panel’s assessment is based primarily on the submitted abstract and any additional information provided before or during the conference. If none of the submissions meet the criteria, the panel may decide not to award the prize. Judges will not be eligible for the award.