Data-first manifesto: Shifting priorities in scholarly communications

Abstract

This paper introduces and exegetes the Data-First Manifesto, which calls for prioritizing data curation over interface design in digital scholarship projects as well as for rethinking how to foster scholarly communication in the performance of digital scholarship. The origins of the manifesto are discussed and its four sets of ordered preferences are detailed together with a discussion of how the implementation of these shifts in priorities might transform scholarly communications in the field of digital scholarship.