Research Publication and Dissemination- the Future? : NUI Galway, 10 January 2008

Nicholas Canny, Presentation

New Horizons in Scholarly Publication in the Humanities and

Social Sciences

• What are the new publication/dissemination possibilities, and how have scholars in the Humanities and Social Sciences responded to them: internationally and nationally?

• How have funding agencies, publishing houses, and academic institutions responded to these new developments and absorbed them into their systems: again internationally and nationally?

• How does involvement with the new possibilities and technologies affect the career prospects of scholars in the Humanities and Social Sciences, and how is their engagement being measured, if at all?

• What issues of Intellectual Property are involved and how are these being addressed?

What are the new publication/dissemination possibilities, and how have scholars in the Humanities and Social

Sciences responded to them: internationally and nationally?

• Desk top publication of books/journals• Publishers requiring camera ready copy; or camera ready

plus hard copy• On line journals• On line reviewing, information sourcing and bibliographic

assistance; including interactive discourse; tagging• Conventional journals providing subscribers with access to

some elements on line in advance of publication and the complete journal through J Store

• Citation indices and googling of various kinds• Assembly of on line data bases a) for individual projects b) for

national access c) with EU or wider international linkages• Digital Humanities in the broadest sense including with

interactive websites, or multi-media extending to music, cinema, theatre as well as the printed word.

• Open access.

Overall Conclusion:

• New and better possibilities of disseminating scholarly outcomes and creating teaching packages than ever before.

• These developments affect the lives of all individuals in the Humanities and Social Sciences whether we like it or not

• Some academics have grasped these possibilities eagerly to the point of themselves becoming masters of the technologies; creating and maintaining websites, including interactive websites; interacting with the cultural and creative industries, promoting inter-institutional/international discourse and collaboration; defining themselves as professionals in digital humanities.

How have funding agencies, publishing houses, and academic institutions responded to these new

developments and absorbed them into their systems: again internationally and nationally?

• 1) Desk top publication of books/journals• 2 )Publishers requiring camera ready copy; or camera ready plus

hard copy• 3) On line journals• 4) On line reviewing, information sourcing and bibliographic

assistance; including interactive discourse; tagging• 5) Conventional journals providing subscribers with access to some

elements on line in advance of publication and the complete journal through J Store

• 6) Citation indices and googling of various kinds• 7) Assembly of on line databases a) for individual projects b) for

national access c) with EU or wider international linkages• 8) Digital Humanities in the broadest sense including with

interactive websites, or multi-media extending to music, cinema, theatre as well as the printed word.

• 9) Open access.

General conclusions:

• Institutions have responded more conservatively than have individual scholars; initial enthusiams give way to more cautious approach; data and digitized compilations ephemeral and costly to maintain; universities slow to provide equipment, technical support

• Profit making publishing taking over from voluntary effort; especially on the journal front; new technology enables even greater professionalism so they can advance further ahead

• On monograph/book front frequently reduction in professional service provided, but a better service from the few

• Exposure of need for technical support in Humanities/ Social Science commensurate with what has long been in place in Science: Ireland only in the catching up phase: Digital Humanities Observatory under PRTLI 4

• Expectation by funders and institutions that research findings resulting from public funding will be freely available; publishers not necessarily agreeable

• Small and amateur being marginalized

How does involvement with the new possibilities and technologies affect the career prospects of scholars in the

Humanities and Social Sciences, and how is their engagement being measured, if at all?

• 1) Desk top publication of books/journals• 2 )Publishers requiring camera ready copy; or camera ready plus

hard copy• 3) On line journals• 4) On line reviewing, information sourcing and bibliographic

assistance; including interactive discourse; tagging• 5) Conventional journals providing subscribers with access to some

elements on line in advance of publication and the complete journal through J Store

• 6) Citation indices and googling of various kinds• 7) Assembly of on line databases a) for individual projects b) for

national access c) with EU or wider international linkages• 8) Digital Humanities in the broadest sense including with

interactive websites, or multi-media extending to music, cinema, theatre as well as the printed word.

• 9) Open access.

General Conclusions

• Sometimes new elitism, which compounds old elitism especially in publishing domain

• Increasing uncertainty for the individual scholar what is being counted for career credit; different metrics being applied by funding agencies and by hiring institutions

• Growing difference between metrics in Humanities and in the Social Sciences, but general absence on agreement across disciplines, across institutions, and across countries as to what metrics apply for hiring/ promotion; the monograph/ the journal article/ papers in edited volumes and conference proceedings/digitized compilations; a hierarchy of publishers and of journals; what applies in the RAE system in the UK? What applies in Harvard/ Slippery Rock?

• Bigger issue: do digital compilations count for career credit? MLA/ History/Social Sciences (at institutional level unthinkable in Sciences)

• Further difficulty when Continental European practice taken into account

What issues of Intellectual Property are involved and how are these being addressed?

• This not the issue; the particular issue the originality of ideas; Please tell me what you are thinking so I can get it into print before you do?

• Particular problems with Open Access and essential differences from science;

• The relative slowness in bringing a major piece of research to completion whether thesis or book

• Thesis usually stage 1 and IP belongs totally to the scholar rather than to supervisor; since we are entering into Post Doc as normal part of career process should not Open Access to theses be suspended until after the author has had the opportunity to draw some publications from the original work

• What institution gets the credit? Where the original thesis was completed? Where the post doc was held? Where the former student is employed when the book/journal article appears?

• Relative slowness between submission of journal article and final appearance in print: at what point would Open Access come into play? Perhaps when in final proof stage

• The book remains the prime vehicle for communication/career enhancement in humanities; copyright belongs entirely with the publisher; how can this be negotiated for purposes of Open Access? If not then scholars in the Humanities (and to some degree Social Sciences) will always be at a disadvantage in earning institutional recognition for their research work.

Overall Conclusions:

• Scholars in Humanities and Social Sciences are as amenable as any others to deploying and employing the new technologies and communication possibilities to best advantage and, in many instances, do so without the technical support and back up that researchers in Science would take for granted

• There is insufficient communication between the several stakeholders in developing the research resource centre of the future and actions that may be resolving problems for some may be creating problems for others

• Those most removed from the centre of debate and decision making are frequently the researchers themselves and particularly researchers in the Humanities and Social Sciences who –principally because they persistently refuse to make themselves available for election or appointment- are very poorly represented at decision making and management levels of Irish university institutions

Overall Conclusions:

• Change is happening anyhow and Scholars in Humanities and Social Sciences MUST engage in discussion on matters so vital to their careers and to how research in their several disciplines is going to be conducted and appraised into the future

• Finally, the most urgent item on any such agenda (nationally and internationally) must be that of metrics, and on particularly on how the value of knowledge, which, for the foreseeable future, will continue to be disseminated in book and individually authored thesis is to be measured.