The idea that ‘raw data’ is an oxymoron comes from scholars Geoffrey Bowker, Lisa Gitelman, and Virginia Jackson. It is predicated on the foundation that data never exists in a “raw,” unfiltered form and is never a neutral representation of reality. Every time data is created, it already is interpreted in some way - including through choices about what to collect, how to collect it, how to organize it, and how to store it. By the time data is being used for analysis, it has already been “cooked” in subtle and not-so-subtle ways.