Mercuration

Mercuration is a term used to describe the practice of curating information, artifacts, and data related to mercury across disciplines. It is often treated as a portmanteau of mercury and curation. The term is not universally standardized and is used variably to refer to different activities, from digital data management to the organization of historical and scientific records about mercury’s chemistry, environmental fate, health effects, and regulatory status.

In data-management contexts, mercuration emphasizes data provenance, quality control, and versioning. Practices may include collecting primary sources, linking datasets with metadata, applying controlled vocabularies for mercury species and measurement units, and providing transparent methods for data validation and updating.

Applications of mercuration include toxicology databases, environmental monitoring repositories, historical archives, science communication platforms, and regulatory information systems. The goal is to improve discoverability, interoperability, and reproducibility of mercury-related information for researchers, policymakers, educators, and the public.

Challenges in mercuration include heterogeneity of data formats, gaps in historical records, safety considerations when handling mercury-related data, and regulatory variations across jurisdictions. Maintaining up-to-date information requires ongoing curation efforts, community governance, and clear provenance to avoid misinformation and data drift.

Related topics include data curation, knowledge management, toxicology databases, environmental monitoring, and mercury.