TY - JOUR AU - Roosen, Joris AU - Curtis, Daniel T1 - Dangers of Noncritical Use of Historical Plague Data T2 - Emerging Infectious Disease journal PY - 2018 VL - 24 IS - 1 SP - 103 SN - 1080-6059 AB - Researchers have published several articles using historical data sets on plague epidemics using impressive digital databases that contain thousands of recorded outbreaks across Europe over the past several centuries. Through the digitization of preexisting data sets, scholars have unprecedented access to the historical record of plague occurrences. However, although these databases offer new research opportunities, noncritical use and reproduction of preexisting data sets can also limit our understanding of how infectious diseases evolved. Many scholars have performed investigations using Jean-Noël Biraben’s data, which contains information on mentions of plague from various kinds of sources, many of which were not cited. When scholars fail to apply source criticism or do not reflect on the content of the data they use, the reliability of their results becomes highly questionable. Researchers using these databases going forward need to verify and restrict content spatially and temporally, and historians should be encouraged to compile the work. KW - plague KW - Black Death KW - data KW - history KW - databases KW - mapping KW - sources KW - epidemics KW - bacteria KW - bioterrorism and preparedness KW - vector-borne infections KW - zoonoses KW - high-consequence pathogens DO - 10.3201/eid2401.170477 UR - https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/24/1/17-0477_article ER - End of Reference