This synthesis explores specific ethical questions that commonly arise in isotopic analysis. For more than four decades, isotope analysis has been employed in archeological studies to explore past human and animal dietary habits, mobility patterns, and the environment in which a human or animal inhabited during life. These analyses require consideration of ethical issues. While theoretical concepts are discussed, we focus on practical aspects: working with descendant communities and other rights holders, choosing methods, creating and sharing data, and working mindfully within academia. These layers of respect and care should surround our science. This paper is relevant for specialists in isotope analysis as well as those incorporating these methods into larger projects. By covering the whole of the research process, from design to output management, we appeal broadly to archaeology and provide actionable solutions that build on the discussions in the general field.

Inclusion at academic events is facing increased scrutiny as the communities these events serve raise their expectations for who can practically attend. Active efforts in recent years to bring more diversity to academic events have brought progress and created momentum. However, we must reflect on these efforts and determine which underrepresented groups are being disadvantaged. Inclusion at academic events is important to ensure diversity of discourse and opinion, to help build networks, and to avoid academic siloing. All of these contribute to the development of a robust and resilient academic field. We have developed these Ten Simple Rules both to amplify the voices that have been speaking out and to celebrate the progress of many Equity, Diversity, and Inclusivity practices that continue to drive the organisation of academic events. The Rules aim to raise awareness as well as provide actionable suggestions and tools to support these initiatives further. This aims to support academic organisations such as the Deep Learning Indaba, Neuromatch Academy, the IBRO-Simons Computational Neuroscience Imbizo, Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG), Arabs in Neuroscience, FAIRPoints, and OLS (formerly Open Life Science). This article is a call to action for organisers to reevaluate the impact and reach of their inclusive practices.

This work presents 10 rules that provide guidance and recommendations on how to start up discussions around the implementation of the FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) principles and creation of standardised ways of working. These recommendations will be particularly relevant if you are unsure where to start, who to involve, what the benefits and barriers of standardisation are, and if little work has been done in your discipline to standardise research workflows. When applied, these rules will support a more effective way of engaging the community with discussions on standardisation and practical implementation of the FAIR principles.

This collection presents data on neodymium isotopes from modern dental elements (third molars) of 47 individuals born and raised in the Netherlands, Grenada, Curaçao, Bonaire, Columbia and Iceland. Neodymium isotope composition was successfully analyzed for 40 individuals (ranging between 0.511820 and 0.512773 ¹⁴³Nd/¹⁴⁴Nd and -16.0 to 2.6 εNd), with neodymium concentration data available for 23 individuals (ranging between 0.1 and 21.0 ppb). For 37 individuals the dental elements have also been analyzed for strontium isotopes. All analyses were performed on a Thermo Scientific Triton Plus TIMS. Neodymium analyses were performed using 10¹³ Ω resistors, with samples reanalyzed using 10¹¹ Ω resistors if enough sample was available. Strontium analyses were performed using 10¹¹Ω resistors. A discussion about the applicability of the analysis technique and the results can be found in the article “Evaluation of neodymium isotope analysis of human dental enamel as a provenance indicator using 10¹³ Ω amplifiers (TIMS)”. This dataset is available for verification of the provenance capability of neodymium isotope analysis in archaeological and forensic mobility studies. To ensure the interoperability and reusability of the data, the data is available on the IsoArcH (https://isoarch.eu/) data repository.

The uptake of Persistent Identifiers (PIDs) has increased in recent years and has improved the Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability and Reusability (FAIR) of various research related objects (e.g., data, software, researchers and research organisations). The uptake of PIDs for physical aspects of research (such as samples, artefacts, reagents and analyses instruments) has thus far been embraced primarily for use in the fields of Earth and life Sciences. Wider adoption of PIDs for physical aspects of research can improve the findability and accessibility of these resources, which will allow for data to be put into more detailed context. By using PIDs all the information about a sample or artefact could be more easily available in a single location, allowing for persistent links to other sources of relevant information. Through the use of interoperable (metadata) standards and shared forms of documentation it will be easier to collaborate across multiple disciplines and the reusability of resulting data and the physical samples and artefacts themselves will improve. Wider adoption of PIDs for physical aspects of research is challenging, as research communities will have to work together to establish relevant standards that are meaningful across multiple domains. The infrastructure for wider adoption already exists, it is now up to research communities to adopt standards and PIDs for the physical aspects of their research and up to funding and research institutes to support this broader adoption.

Objectives: Isotopic analyses using human dental enamel provide information on the mobility and diet of individuals in forensic and archeological studies. Thus far, no study has systematically examined intraindividual coupled strontium (Sr), oxygen (O), and carbon (C) isotope variation in human enamel or the effect that caries have on the isotopic integrity of the enamel. The inadequate quantification of isotopic variation affects interpretations and may constrain sample selection of elements affected by caries. This study aims to quantify the intraindividual isotopic variation and provides recommendations for enamel sampling methods. Material and Methods: This study presents the first systematic results on intraindividual variation in Sr–O–C isotope composition and Sr concentration in modern human dental enamel of third molars (affected and unaffected by caries). A multiloci sampling approach (n = 6–20) was used to analyze surface and inner enamel, employing thermal ionization mass spectrometry (TIMS) and isotope ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS). Third molars were analyzed from 47 individuals from the Netherlands, Iceland, the United States, the Caribbean, Colombia, Somalia, and South Africa. Results: Intradental isotopic variation in modern Dutch dental elements was recorded for Sr, O, and C and exceeded the variation introduced by the analytical error. Single loci and bulk sampling approaches of third molars established that a single analysis is only representative of the bulk Sr isotope composition in 60% of the elements analyzed. Dental elements affected by caries showed twice the variation seen in unaffected dental elements. Caries did not consistently incorporate the isotopic composition of the geographical environment in which they developed. Discussion: The isotopic variability recorded in unaffected inner enamel indicates that variations greater than 0.000200 for ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr and larger than 2‰ for δ¹⁸O and δ¹³C are required to demonstrate changes in modern Dutch human diet or geographic location.

The analysis of strontium isotope ratios in human dental enamel has become important in the fields of archaeological and forensic science for determining provenance and hence mobility. The prerequisite for the approach relies on a correlation between dietary Sr intake and the underlying local geology. This premise is brought into question for anthropological forensic investigations by the increasing globalisation of food supply, the establishment of nation-wide or international supermarket chains, and increasing urbanisation. To better understand the processes that cause spatial variation of Sr isotope ratios in the modern environment, this study determines the range of ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratios in the modern Dutch environment based on 296 modern human dental enamel and tap water samples. Tap water ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr from the Netherlands range from 0.70837 to 0.71278 (ΔSr_{max – min} = 0.0044) and modern human enamel from 0.70847 to 0.70995 (ΔSr_{max – min} = 0.0015). The ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratios of tap water are predominantly determined by the underlying bedrock geology at the sampling point. In contrast, the human enamel data record an insignificant, weak correlation with water supply or local geology. Hence, the main principle behind the application of ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr as a proxy for mobility appears invalid in the modern globalised Dutch context. The range of ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr in modern Dutch humans that can be used for anthropological forensic investigations is between 0.7085 and 0.7100 (n = 153), with 98.0% of individuals between 0.7088 and 0.7099.

Research data management (RDM) is increasingly important in scholarship. Many researchers are, however, unaware of the benefits of good RDM and unsure about the practical steps they can take to improve their RDM practices. Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) addresses this cultural barrier by appointing Data Stewards at every faculty. By providing expert advice and increasing awareness, the Data Stewardship project focuses on incremental improvements in current data and software management and sharing practices. This cultural change is accelerated by the Data Champions who share best practices in data management with their peers. The Data Stewards and Data Champions build a community that allows a discipline-specific approach to RDM. Nevertheless, cultural change also requires appropriate rewards and incentives. While local initiatives are important, and we discuss several examples in this paper, systemic changes to the academic rewards system are needed. This will require collaborative efforts of a broad coalition of stakeholders and we will mention several such initiatives. This article demonstrates that community building is essential in changing the code and data management culture at TU Delft.

The Data Stewardship project is a new initiative from the Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) in the Netherlands. Its aim is to create mature working practices and policies regarding research data management across all TU Delft faculties. The novelty of this project relies on having a dedicated person, the so-called ‘Data Steward,’ embedded in each faculty to approach research data management from a more discipline-specific perspective. It is within this framework that a research data management survey was carried out at the faculties that had a Data Steward in place by July 2018. The goal was to get an overview of the general data management practices, and use its results as a benchmark for the project. The total response rate was 11 to 37% depending on the faculty. Overall, the results show similar trends in all faculties, and indicate lack of awareness regarding different data management topics such as automatic data backups, data ownership, relevance of data management plans, awareness of FAIR data principles and usage of research data repositories. The results also show great interest towards data management, as more than ~80% of the respondents in each faculty claimed to be interested in data management training and wished to see the summary of survey results. Thus, the survey helped identified the topics the Data Stewardship project is currently focusing on, by carrying out awareness campaigns and providing training at both university and faculty levels.

In this paper, we explain our strategy for developing research data management policies at TU Delft. Policies can be important drivers for research institutions in the implementation of good data management practices. As Rans and Jones note (Rans and Jones 2013), " Policies provide clarity of purpose and may help in the framing of roles, responsibilities and requisite actions. They also legitimise making the case for investment”. However, policy development often tends to place the researchers in a passive position, while they are the ones managing research data on a daily basis. Therefore, at TU Delft, we have taken an alternative approach: a policy needs to go hand in hand with practice. The policy development was initiated by the Research Data Services at TU Delft Library, but as the process continued, other stakeholders, such as legal and IT departments, got involved. Finally, the faculty-based Data Stewards have played a key role in leading the consultations with the research community that led to the development of the faculty-specific policies. This allows for disciplinary differences to be reflected in the policies and to create a closer connection between policies and day-to-day research practice. Our primary intention was to keep researchers and research practices at the centre of our strategy for data management. We did not want to introduce and mandate requirements before adequate infrastructure and professional support were available to our research community and before our researchers were themselves willing to discuss formalisation of data management practices. This paper describes the key steps taken and the most important decisions made during the development of RDM policies at TU Delft.