Annotating Images in Humanities Research: A Survey on Practices and Perspectives

This dataset contains the results of a survey that investigates how scholars in the humanities interact with, perceive, and annotate visual materials, with a specific focus on the digital environment. Project Context The survey was developed as part of a doctoral research project within the Cultural Heritage in the Digital Ecosystem course at the University of Bologna. It was supported by: Funding: National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), Project PE 0000020 CHANGES, funded by the European Union NextGenerationEU. Collaboration: Developed during a research stay at the Service Numérique de la Recherche (SNR) of the Institut National d'Histoire de l'Art (INHA) in Paris. File Overview The repository includes two main files: questionnaire_scholarly_annotation.pdf: The original survey document containing the questions and the structure as presented to the participants. clean_survey_data_for_publication.csv: The anonymized dataset containing the responses to the survey. Dataset Structure The dataset is organized according to the sections of the survey. Each column in the CSV file represents a specific question or piece of information: Section 1: Background - Collects basic information regarding the respondent's disciplinary field and academic or professional role. It also assesses their familiarity with key topics such as digital images and annotations in the cultural heritage domain. Section 2: Use of Digital Images in Research - Investigates the types of visual materials used (both digital and analogue) and their specific role within the research workflow. This section identifies where scholars obtain these images and the main obstacles they face in finding or reusing digital versions. Section 3: Annotation as a Scholarly Practice - Explores general annotation habits and conceptual understandings of annotation as a fundamental research step. It examines whether researchers view annotation as an individual or collaborative act. Section 4: Annotation Practices on Digital Images - Examines the practical experience of annotating digital images, including the specific tools and software environments used. It details the primary scholarly purposes for annotating and the specific methods employed. A concluding section is dedicated to collect comments on limitations of digital annotation practices and other indications.