2025/12/16 by Eran Nisan Schwarzfuchs · 1 voice
Computer Science · Arts and Humanities · #Research Data Management Practices #Digital and Traditional Archives Management #Library Science and Information Systems
paper · pdf · doi:10.1080/1369118x.2025.2604664
openalex publication_date 2025/12/16 · openalex created_date 2025/12/17 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/15
This study examines how citizen science projects negotiate the meanings and practices of FAIR data principles (Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability, and Reusability) within information infrastructures. Through ethnographic fieldwork at the Israel Center for Citizen Science, I explore how FAIR principles function both as standardized information management practices and as societal values related to data-ownership and accessibility. This framing illuminates FAIR principles not merely as technical standards but as social practices that reshape relationships between scientists, participants, and the natural world – through translation, black-boxing, and biopower. My findings reveal tensions in how scientists understand and navigate data-sharing, with competing perspectives on information ownership and accessibility. The study demonstrates how FAIR principles transform conventional power dynamics of scientific knowledge production by requiring scientists to retrace chains of information translation and by positioning scientists as subjects of participant surveillance. Hence, it reveals how information infrastructures both shape and are shaped by social relationships in scientific networks, challenging intuitive perceptions of information ownership and authority in open information ecosystems.