Please see: Yan Lin | Penn State Department of Geography

Rock Ethics Institute Faculty Fellows Project Title: Participatory Metadata as Ethical Infrastructure for Environmental Data: Integrating CARE Principles and Critical Data Studies through Community-Based Research

Rock Ethics Institute Faculty Fellows Project Abstract: This project examines how environmental data can be shared while maintaining the cultural, geographic, and community context from which the data originate. Guided by the CARE principles – Collective Benefit, Authority to Control, Responsibility, and Ethics – the project addresses limitations of open-data systems that emphasize public access and reuse but often do not account for Indigenous data governance and community benefit. Working with Tribal partners, the project will co-develop metadata that includes both scientific and cultural context. Using a livestock and environmental health study developed through a long-term partnership with an Indigenous community, the project will apply these approaches within the Environmental Data Initiative repository to better represent community knowledge, data interpretation, and local meaning alongside technical data records.