A critical reflection on big data: Considering APIs, researchers and tools as data makers

This paper looks at how data is 'made', by whom and how. Rather than assuming data already exists 'out there', waiting to simply be recovered and turned into findings, the paper examines how data is co-produced through dynamic research intersections. A particular focus is the intersections between the application programming interface (API), the researcher collecting the data as well as the tools used to process it. In light of this, this paper offers three new ways to define and think about Big Data and proposes a series of practical suggestions for making data.