This chapter delves into the concept of paradata with the dual aim to link paradata’s notable complexity to broad utility, and to provide groundwork for exploring paradata in the subsequent chapters of this volume. The concept of paradata is investigated in several ways, including explaining the etymology of paradata and reviewing paradata definitions in survey research, archaeology, and heritage visualisation research – three domains where paradata use is most well-established. The chapter then moves on to discuss metadata and provenance data, two key related terms that are used to further interrogate the concept of paradata. The chapter shows that the concept of paradata encompasses a range of meanings and definitions, and that these share several common characteristics and correspondences, but also notable differences. To conclude, the chapter outlines two approaches to grasping and utilising the concept of paradata. The many definitions of and approaches to paradata are discussed as being, in some respects, an obstacle for understanding and employing the concept. The chapter, however, also underlines the complexities of the concept of paradata as a useful resource when building connectivities across its many possible domains of use and application.

Making sense of paradata as information on practices and processes is both a matter of theory and practice. This chapter introduces a comprehensive theoretical reference model for paradata and discusses its practical implications. Paradata is approached as a category of things that can be appropriated as being informative about processes and practices. Working knowledge on practices and processes, and the practices and processes themselves, can create paradata through both embodiment and acts of inscription. Paradata turns back to working knowledge through appropriation. Enactment turns paradata back to practices and processes. Paradata materialises as a process and network-like meshwork in space-time. It is perpetually in the making and stabilised momentarily only at times when it is taken into use.

Paradata is a concept that is very much in the making. Its significance is not given and it can matter in different ways depending on context and how the notion itself is operationalised in use. Paradata complements earlier metainformation concepts for knowledge organisation in how it can facilitate systematising and making the complexity of data, practices and processes visible. As a mindset, paradata underlines the importance of being involved both in the theory and practice of how data is constantly being made and remade. There are, however, practical and ethical limits to what paradata can do and how far, and where are the limits of what is desirable to do with it. Ultimately, mastering the use of paradata and making it matter is also a question of literacy, tightly interwoven in the intricate meshwork of the social reality of the domains where it is put to work.

The purpose of this chapter is to show how and where paradata emerges ‘in the wild’ of the many varieties of research documentation produced during scholarly work, and to demonstrate what this paradata might look like. The examination of paradata in research documentation is approached using perspectives of data ‘as practice’ and data ‘as thing’, emphasising simultaneously that paradata is malleable and will manifest differently across contexts of data production and use, but also that paradata is a tangible data phenomenon with identifiable characteristics. This chapter draws empirically from an interview study of archaeologists and archaeological research data professionals (N=31). Theoretical framing is provided by scholarship on data and documentation. The chapter reveals how paradata in research documentation emerges in different forms and with varying scope, comprehensiveness and degrees of formalisation. It also suggests that there are technical and epistemic usefulness thresholds relevant for identifying and using paradata. The technical usefulness threshold represents baseline possibilities of accessing and interacting with paradata in research documentation. The epistemic usefulness threshold underlines instead the degree of affinity between the intellectual horizons of paradata creation and paradata use, and several resources are identified that can help to strengthen this affinity.

This chapter introduces a selection of methods applicable for identifying and extracting paradata from existing datasets and data documentation which can then be used to complement existing formal documentation of practices and processes. Data reuse, in its multiple forms, enables researchers to build upon the foundations laid by previous studies. Retrospective methods for eliciting paradata, including qualitative and quantitative backtracking and data forensics, provide means to get insights into past research practices and processes for data-driven analysis. The methods discussed in this chapter enhance understanding of data-related practices and processes, reproducibility of findings by facilitating the replication and verification of results through data reuse. Key references and further reading are provided after each method description.

Research on paradata practices provides diverse insights for the management of paradata. This chapter draws on the existing body of research to inform paradata practices in repository settings including research data archives, repositories and research information management contexts. Four categories of paradata needs (methods; scope; provenance; knowledge representation) are described as well as two major categories of paradata relevant from a repository perspective (core paradata i.e. information commonly perceived as being paradata, and potential paradata i.e. information with potential to function as paradata). Further, the chapter discusses three broad management approaches and a set of intermediary strategies of standardisation and embracing the messiness paradata, and of cultivating paradata literacy to manage different varieties of core paradata and potential paradata.

Making sense of data, and making it useful and manageable, requires understanding of both what the data is about but also where it comes from and how it has been processed, and used. An emerging interdisciplinary corpus of literature terms information about the practices and processes of data making, management and use as paradata. This introductory chapter to a first comprehensive overview of the concept and phenomenon of paradata from data management and knowledge organisation perspectives contextualises the notion and provides an overview of the volume and its aims and starting points.

This chapter introduces methods for generating and documenting paradata before and during data creation practices and processes (i.e. prospective and in-situ approaches, respectively). It introduces formal metadata-based paradata documentation using standards and controlled vocabularies to contribute to paradata consistency and interoperability. Narrative descriptions and recordings are advantageous for providing contextual richness and detailed documentation of data generation processes. Logging methods, including log files and blockchain technology, allow for automatic paradata generation and for maintaining the integrity of the record. Data management plans and registered reports are examples of measures to prospectively generate potential paradata on forthcoming activities. Finally, facilitative workflow-based approaches are introduced for step-by-step modelling of practices and processes. Rather than suggesting that a single approach to generating and documenting paradata will suffice, we encourage users to consider a selective combination of approaches, facilitated by adequate institutional resources, technical and subject expertise, to enhance the understanding, transparency, reproducibility and credibility of paradata describing practices and processes.