Circulating Evidence Across Research Contexts: The Locality of Data and Claims in Model Organism Research

In everyday scientific practice, facts come in two sizes: smallfacts (data acquired by researchers through experimentation orfield work), and big facts (claims about phenomena for whichdata function as evidence). This paper explores the processesthrough which small and big facts are circulated and usedacross research contexts in model organism biology. This leadsme to challenge the standard philosophical characterisation ofdata as embedded in the context in which they are produced(and hence “local”) and of claims about phenomena as retainingtheir significance beyond that context (hence “non-local”). Iargue that the degrees of locality of both small and big facts arenot intrinsic to their epistemic status, but rather vary dependingon the packaging used to make them travel. As illustrated in thecase of bioinformatics, packaging processes include recourse toappropriate labels, vehicles and expertise. Facts aboutorganisms travel well when they are temporarily liberated frominformation about their context of production, thus becomingnon-local entities that can be recruited across new contexts. Atthe same time, information about provenance needs to beincluded in the packaging of facts, so as to enable prospectiveusers to assess their reliability.[...]