Research Data Infracstructure for Historical Sources

• Applicants: Professor Dr. Martin Baumeister; Professor Dr. Clemens Beckstein; Professor Dr. Robert Gramsch-Stehfest; Professor Dr. Martin Mulsow; Professorin Dr. Hedwig Röckelein
• Subject Area: Early Modern History ; Medieval History
• Term: since 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 532400971

Within the research project "Forschungsdateninfrastruktur Historische Quellen" (HisQu) a domain-specific data infra-structure will be developed in order to enable ontology-based deep semantic indexing of heterogeneous and semi-structured source texts (especially "Regesten"). HisQu addresses research groups, individual researchers, and all other interested users and aims to significantly improve digital collaborative work in historical research. HisQu provides tools that cover all aspects of the research data cycle: from data generation to data storage, processing and analysis. With the help of computational linguistic methods (machine learning and pattern recognition as well as domain-specific grammars) the texts are semantically indexed. Using domain-specific vocabularies and top-level ontologies, a semantic data model will be developed, to allow the creation of a knowledge graph. The use of a domain-specific Wikibase instance as a data storage will be evaluated. Flexible and customizable user interfaces will allow the editing and expansion of the data sets produced as well as the exploration of the knowledge graph through individually configurable queries. The system architecture ensures the traceability of the research process and the generation of the data as well as its reusability. HisQu will be developed using the Repertorium Germanicum (RG) as a pilot data corpus. The RG provides a corpus of sources that is central to late medieval church history, that has not yet been adequately digitized. Subject-specific case studies accompany the development process and validate the practical applicability of HisQu.

• DFG Programme: Research data and software (Scientific Library Services and Information Systems)
• International Connection: Austria, Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, United Kingdom
• Co-Investigators: Rene Adler; Dr. Mechthild Black-Veldtrup; Dr. Thomas Hofmann; Bärbel Kröger; Johannes Mitschunas; Dr. Christian Popp; Thomas Scheffler; Dr. Jörg Voigt
• Cooperation Partners: Dr. Tom Brughmans; Dr. Matthew Hammond; Professor Dr. Christian Hesse; Jörg Hönschemeyer; Daniel Jeller; Professor Dr. Steffen Krieb; Professor Dr. Andreas Kuczera; Professor Dr. Johannes Paulmann; Andreas Rehberg; Professorin Dr. Kirsi Salonen