TalkBank

The TalkBank System

The goal of TalkBank is to foster fundamental research in the study of human communication with an emphasis on spoken communication. Currently, TalkBank provides repositories in 14 research areas, as represented by the links on this page. Rules for access to TalkBank data are described here.

This article from Current Directions describes the current state of the TalkBank Project and its contributions.

Data in TalkBank have been contributed by hundreds of researchers working in over 42 languages who are committed to principles of open data-sharing.  These data are used by thousands of researchers resulting in many thousands of published articles. Data in TalkBank use a consistent XML-compatible representation called CHAT which facilitates automatic analysis and searching, using open-source and free programs we have developed.

We have designated Language Development Research (LDR) as the official journal of the TalkBank system, because of its emphasis on Open Science, Open Data, and independent publishing. The Carnegie Mellon Library uses the open-source Janeway software to support the reviewing, accepting, and publishing of scientific reports in LDR without any charges or payments. All reviewing and editing is done by volunteer scientific contributors. The journal seeks to publish rigorous studies, whatever the outcome, in all areas of language learning, including child language, multilingualism, and language disorders. The editors are Patricia Brooks (CUNY) and Vera Kempe (Abertay University).