Combatting Bias: Guidelines for Creating FAIR+ (FAIR and Equitable) Data in the Humanities and Social Sciences

Public Summary
The Combatting Bias project addresses the urgent need in the social sciences and humanities for guidelines to promote ethical data creation practices. It underscores the need for critical reflection in assembling and structuring datasets, and aims to identify and mitigate biases in data creation. In collaboration with thirteen projects from the social sciences and humanities, the initiative will develop FAIR+ data creation guidelines—adhering to FAIR principles and crucially grounded in data ethics. These guidelines aspire to benefit the humanities, social sciences, and cultural heritage landscape, as well as technical fields that rely on large-scale socially and historically informed data.

Involved Parties

• International Institute for Social History - Merve Tosun and Filipa Ribeiro da Silva, Exploring Slave Trade in Asia Project 
• Radboud University - Coen van Galen, Slave Registers Project
• Huygens Institute - Mrinalini Luthra and Matthias van Rossum, GLOBALISE Project
• The Slave Voyages Project - Daniel Domingues da Silva, sponsored by numerous universities in the United States 

Advisors
• Prof. Charles Jeurgens, Professor Archival Sciences (Universiteit van Amsterdam)
• Jeftha Pattikawa, Sr. Advisor Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion (Nationaal Archief)
• Dr. Caroline Drieënhuizen, Assistant Professor (Open Universiteit Nederland)
• Stevie Nolten, Researcher/Advisor (DE-BIAS, Nederlands Instituut voor Beeld en Geluid)
• Isabel Beirigo, Research Communications Specialist (DE-BIAS, Nederlands Instituut voor Beeld en Geluid)
• Monique Groot, Product Manager Research & Heritage (DE-BIAS, Nederlands Instituut voor Beeld en Geluid)
• Layan Nijem, Project Coordinator 2022-2024 (DeCoSEAS, Universiteit van Amsterdam)
• Mandy Sanger, Head of Education (District Six Museum, SA)
• Tina Smith, Head of Collections (District Six Museum, SA)
• Shuai Wang, Scientific Engineer (ODISSEI, FAIR Expertise Hub)
• Dr. Angelica Maineri, Data Manager (ODISSEI, Fair Expertise Hub)
• Prof. Natascha Wagner, Professor of International and Applied Economics (Global Data Lab, Radboud University)
• Prof. Julia Noordegraaf, Professor of Digital Heritages (HAICu, University of Amsterdam)

Keywords

Fair, datasets, humanities, SSH, cultural heritage, ethics, historically informed data, biases