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Guides to Good Practice

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What is heritage science?

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The Guides to Good Practice (G2GP) provide comprehensive guidance for creating, managing, and preserving digital heritage data across the entire project lifecycle. Developed by the Archaeology Data Service and partners since 1996, these guides address the needs of heritage organisations, project creators, and data management professionals.

Update

In 2026, the Guides underwent a significant update to make these digital resources more accessible and reusable. Each guide now:

  • Features a persistent Digital Object Identifier (DOI) and a full citation format to ensure proper attribution. 
  • Has also been migrated to a Jupyter Notebook format, which provides benefits to usability and accessibility.
  • Is shared on GitHub, with both content and source code available, enabling others to suggest improvement, adapt and build upon these guides.

This update of the Guides has been made possible by HSDS staff, with financial support from RICHeS and the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).

Guides for Heritage Science

Many of the existing guides are useful for heritage science specialists including general information relating to data management and digital archiving, as well as those that relate to specific types of data collection. A list of the guides that may be relevant to heritage science are curated below.

Please visit the Guides to Good Practice webpages hosted by the ADS to learn more and access the full set of resources.

General information guides

Digital Archiving and the Project Lifecycle: An Introduction to these Guides

Originally created as two introductory sections, this material has been combined into a single introduction to the Guides to Good Practice. The guide explores key topics including how to use the guides, the fundamentals of digital archiving, strategic approaches, planning for digital data creation, project documentation and metadata management, data storage and dissemination strategies, copyright and intellectual property considerations, and an exploration of the OAIS (Open Archival Information System) reference model.

Basic ‘Components’: Common Digital Objects

The following guides provide an overview of digitally archiving the most commonly used file types encountered in archaeological and heritage based projects. These guides cover the types of digital archives that are created as part of standard archaeological fieldwork and post-excavation processes, as well as make recommendations about how these digital files should be archived. While focused on individual file types, the guides recognise that these files are commonly components of much larger project workflows involving numerous other techniques and, as such, link through to the later technique-based chapters where relevant.

Data Collection and Fieldwork

This section deals with data produced by commonly used techniques such as geophysical, marine, and UAV survey, laser scanning, photogrammetry, and dendrochronology. The techniques themselves are discussed in detail, alongside data types commonly produced and documentation, metadata, and long-term preservation requirements.

Data Analysis and Visualisation

The guides in this section focus on techniques and software commonly used to analyse or create data beyond fieldwork. These guides take a detailed look at the techniques and data types at the point of creation before considering documentation, metadata requirements and approaches to long-term preservation.

    • Gillings, M., Wise, A., Halls, P., Lock, G., Miller, P., Phillips, G., Ryan, N., & Wheatley, D. (2011). GIS Guide to Good Practice. Archaeology Data Service. https://doi.org/10.5284/VK98-3372
    • Eiteljorg II, H., Fernie, K., Huggett, J., Robinson, D., Thomason, B., Dobson, S., & Lancia, R. (2011). CAD: A Guide to Good Practice. Archaeology Data Service. https://doi.org/10.5284/K5HD-HJ61
    • Trognitz, M., Niven, K., & Gilissen, V. (2016). 3D Models in Archaeology: A Guide to Good Practice. Archaeology Data Service. https://doi.org/10.5284/Q1SS-0331

Forthcoming Heritage Science Guides

Over the next three years, the HSDS will develop, in conjunction with heritage science specialists, a series of new Guides to cover all aspects of Heritage Science and Conservation Research. 

If you are interested in contributing to a new guide relating to heritage science and conservation please contact the HSDS helpdesk at [email protected].

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