This new paper extends the data transparency survey method that I’ve been using with the Linguistic Data Interest Group to the journal Gesture. It not only brings together two research areas I care deeply about: gesture and data management, but also two groups of collaborators I love working with: Andrea Berez-Kroeker and Helene Andreassen in lingdata and Chelsea Krajcik and Barb Kelly in gesture.

This is the first time we have published a paper on this methodology focusing on a specific journal, and I’m grateful to Sotaro Kita and the Gesture editorial board for being open to this reflexive experience. Some key observations:

• Gesture research encompasses a wide range of methodologies
• There are a small number of strongly represented languages (hello English), but a lot of linguistic diversity too
• Researchers mostly work with their own data, but don’t always give a lot of detail on where that data is located
• There is scope to improve the way data is cited back to the original source - something that makes it easier for the reader to engage with the paper but is also helpful for the author!
  

Gesture is a feature of language that is highly context depended, and is hard to replicate for a new author. Allowing for more transparent access to underlying examples for the reader allows for the possibility of reproducing the analysis (or not!) based on the original data. This approach means the foundation of the field can be built stronger.

Why am I blogging about this in 2020 when it was published in 2019?

The official publication date for this paper is 2019, but Gesture is running a bit behind on its publication schedule. You can see on the Gesture website page for this article that it was first published in 2020. I’m just glad to be able to finally share it with you!

Abstract

Data is central to scholarly research, but the nature and location of data used is often under-reported in research publications. Greater transparency and citation of data have positive effects for the culture of research. This article presents the results of a survey of data citation in six years of articles published in the journal Gesture (12.1–17.2). Gesture researchers draw on a broad range of data types, but the source and location of data are often not disclosed in publications. There is also still a strong research focus on only a small range of the world’s languages and their linguistic diversity. Published papers rarely cite back to the primary data, unless it is already published. We discuss both the implications of these findings and the ways that scholars in the field of gesture studies can build a positive culture around open data.

Keywords:

data citation, open data, data management, gesture studies

Reference

Gawne, Lauren, Chelsea Krajcik, Helene N. Andreassen, Andrea L. Berez-Kroeker & Barbara F. Kelly. (2019). Data Transparency and Citation in the Journal Gesture. Gesture 18(1):  83–109. doi: https://doi.org/10.1075/gest.00034.gaw

Green Open Access version available on Figshare: https://doi.org/10.26181/5f57fddc85ebb

Related research publications on data citation:

• Reproducible research in linguistics: A position statement on data citation and attribution in our field
• Putting practice into words: New paper out about methods and data in descriptive grammar writing
• Survey of Current Reproducibility Practices in Linguistics Journals, 2003-2012
  

General resources on data citation in linguistics

• The Austin principles of data citation in linguistics

• The Tromsø recommendations for citation of research data in linguistics
  

• Linguistics Data Interest Group of the Research Data Alliance (interested in this topic? Join us!)
  

We’re now selling a limited range of custom design merch adorned with wugs. The 1958 wug – which is in the public domain – has become a mascot for linguistics; profits from the sale of this merch will go towards the 2021 LingComm Grants. 

Our merch with wugs range includes:

• Classic wug - black on white
• Classic wug - white on black
• Wug print - black on white
• Wug print - white on black
• Wug print - multicolour on white
• Wug print - multicolour on black

For more wug links, including Jean Berko Gleason’s 1958 creation of the wug, how copyright and fair use apply to wug fanworks, and wug art and merch by various people, we’ve compiled an FAQ about the wug, which we will keep updated here. 

The American Anthropological Association is a professional organisation for anthropologists, and promotes the field of anthropology. With over 9000 members, it runs a range of activities, publications and projects. Daniel Ginsberg works as the director of education and professional practice at the AAA - I’ll let him explain what that involves in more detail. I would like to highlight Daniel’s observation that social research design is something that you can take from academic research training and apply to a broad range of jobs. You can follow Daniel on twitter (@NemaVeze).

What did you study at university?

I’ve studied the intersection of language, culture and education for a long time, but from different disciplinary perspectives.

My undergraduate degree is in comparative literature because it was the best way I knew at the time to study languages. I tried to also study theoretical math at the same time, but I wasn’t able to complete all the coursework for both. During my last year I took intro to linguistics and I realized that was probably what I should have done to begin with, but oh well, too late. I loved comp lit and I have no regrets—it’s basically like linguistic anthropology except that you use novels and plays instead of everyday interaction.

I went on from there to get my MA in TESOL and worked for six years as a language teacher, the last three teaching ESL at a public high school in the United States, followed by a stint as a materials developer in language assessment. That overlapped with me going back to grad school for linguistics, and I was eventually able to quit and work on my PhD full time. I had a concentration in sociolinguistics, and my specific areas of interest were educational linguistics, discourse analysis, ethnography and semiotics. My thesis was on interaction in mathematics classrooms.

What is your job?

My fancy title is director of education and professional practice. This means that I do research on the profession of anthropology (including, but not limited to, university professors of anthropology) and use those findings to support our professional development and public outreach programs. Here are a couple of things I’ve done recently: develop interactive materials for a traveling exhibit on migration and mobility; design, field and analyze a survey of journal editors; facilitate a focus group of anthropology department chairs about their pandemic crisis response; plan a remote internship for two high school students who are interested to learn more about anthropology.

How does your linguistics training help you in your job?

There are a couple of specific ways that linguistics informs the way I do my work. For example, while I was working on language assessment, I learned to think of a test form as a speech event that’s designed to have a certain perlocutionary effect, and the same principle applies when I’m writing survey questions. A survey response isn’t the unvarnished truth of someone’s soul, but a speech act that they’re accomplishing in a certain social setting, and any good analysis has to begin from there. Focus groups are even better—I love to write focus group protocols in a way that will elicit a lot of narrative from participants and use narrative analysis methods to map the way participants conceptualize their institutional / social / moral universe.

Do you have any advice do you wish someone had given to you about linguistics/careers/university?

This isn’t linguistics-specific, but it’s also good to have a general idea of social research design. Like a lot of professionals, I work on interdisciplinary teams a lot—I have colleagues with backgrounds in business, publishing, communications, etc.—and one thing I bring to those collaborations is that I understand how to think about research beyond just “let’s send out a survey.” This is something I’ve heard from applied social scientists in a lot of different contexts of practice, from municipal government to Silicon Valley.

Any other thoughts or comments?

I’m currently working with a group of college students who are anthropology majors, and I’m supervising them doing research about how their peers and colleagues prepare for what comes after graduation. One thing they noticed is that students who study anthropology tend not to have a specific career goal in mind, but rather they choose anthropology because it resonates with their values. They have faith in the value of what they’re learning, and faith that it’ll lead eventually to rewarding professional employment. And when you talk to professionals about their careers, that actually tends to be what happens. Your job title won’t be “linguist” or “anthropologist,” but you’re doing linguistics or anthropology because that’s who you are. I don’t mean this in a corny, “just believe in yourself!” kind of way—it does take effort and imagination—but if you can’t see the finish line now, that doesn’t mean it isn’t there.

Recently:

• Interview with a Research Coordinator, Speech Pathologist
  
• Interview with a Dance Instructor and Stay-at-Home Mom
  
• Interview with a Transcriptionist
  
• Interview with an Exhibition Content Manager
  
• Interview with a Community Outreach Coordinator