Swiss-AL: Linguistic Open-Research-Data Practices for Applied Sciences

Description

The ZHAW School of Applied Linguistics develops Swiss-AL (Applied Linguistics), an ex- tensive collection of text data in all Swiss national languages, a linguistic processing pipe- line, and a browser-based analysis workbench, enabling researchers to explore copyright- protected data on public language use. Swiss-AL is part of the national linguistic ecosystem CLARIN-CH and has become an essential component of the national ecosystem of lan- guage re-sources and linguistic infrastructures. It is operated by the ZHAW Digital Dis- course Lab (ZHAW, 2022b) where it is applied in inter- and transdisciplinary research pro- jects on analyzing how language is used in publicly relevant discourses.

Swiss-AL already applies FAIR principles by making data accessible and findable on a dedicated workbench, by processing language data (e.g., websites, social media) in an interoperable, standard- ized fashion and by fostering reusability for different purposes. To take these practices to the next level, a scientific panel of different academic disciplines will evaluate the special disciplinary requirements for linguistic ORD. The overarching goal is to integrate good practices for language-related ORD matching disciplinary research routines manifested by the target scientific communities of Swiss-AL: applied sciences in general, applied linguis- tics in particular and the CLARIN-CH and the European CLARIN communities.

The project innovatively promotes competences in the use of linguistic ORD and explores the value of such data outside linguistic disciplines. This will be reached through implementing stand- ards of sustainable documentation, legal issues/privacy, data circulation, and research data management in accordance with FAIR principles.