About
About the project
Why OpenRTI exists, the principles it follows, who founded it, and how to reach it.
Purpose
OpenRTI is an open-access platform for publishing, examining and citing RTI datasets of cultural heritage objects. Publications usually reproduce only a few still images chosen by the author; the datasets behind them stay unpublished, so a proposed reading cannot be checked under other lighting. OpenRTI makes these datasets openly accessible for examination, comparison and citation. How RTI works is explained in What is RTI?
OpenRTI is guided by the FAIR Guiding Principles for scientific data, which ask that research data be Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable (Wilkinson et al. 2016).
- Findable: every record has a persistent link (openrti.org/id/rti-NNNN) that never changes and is never given to another record. Its description is published as structured data and listed for search engines.
- Accessible: records open in any web browser, without an account or plug-in; their descriptions are also available in a machine-readable form through an open interface. When a record is withdrawn, its link still shows what it was and why it was withdrawn.
- Interoperable: object type, material, place and period can be linked to shared vocabularies (Getty AAT, Pleiades, PeriodO, Wikidata). The data are stored in documented, open formats, and PTM-LRGB data can be downloaded as standard .ptm files where their owner allows it.
- Reusable: each record states its licence and rights holder, and its provenance: who captured it, when, with what equipment and software, and what was changed before publication. Published data versions are never altered, and corrections are dated in a public history. A view link records the light, viewing mode and zoom of an examination, so that a proposed reading can be checked under the same conditions.
Not met: a registered identifier such as a DOI, and listing in research-data registries; records are cited by their persistent link.
Wilkinson, M. D. et al. (2016). The FAIR Guiding Principles for scientific data management and stewardship. Scientific Data 3, 160018. https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2016.18
Founder
OpenRTI was founded by Dr Aykan Akçay, who has used RTI in archaeology and epigraphy for more than fifteen years, on inscriptions, stelae, sarcophagi, architectural reliefs and small finds.
OpenRTI was built so that RTI datasets, often stored on individual project drives and accessed through desktop software, can be examined directly in a web browser, shared and cited through persistent links, and presented alongside records of their provenance. By making these datasets accessible, OpenRTI enables researchers to share their documentation, examine material recorded by others and reference specific datasets in their own work.
Current status
Available now: interactive RTI examination (PTM, HSH, RBF), view comparison and sharing, member accounts with uploads and saved views, editorial review, persistent record links, earlier data versions kept and viewable, and citation by persistent link.
OpenRTI does not assign DOIs: records are cited by their persistent OpenRTI link. A DOI is shown only when a record already carries one.
Contact
Questions, corrections and requests: [email protected]. To report a problem with a record, write with its persistent link; the complaints and removal procedure of the Terms of Service applies.