Downstream from the Digital Humanities: Digital Methods and the Scholarly Communications Ecosystem

3 Aug 2013 - 00:00

A NeDimah Working Paper Meeting
15-16 May 2014, Zadar, Croatia

Call for Participation

While it is clear that some of the barriers to more widespread acceptance and proliferation of digital methods in humanities research are internal to the community, others are not.  Scholars must make a calculated decision when choosing to embark on a digital project, not just about their research questions, their digital tools and methods, and how best to address or implement them, but about their careers, their institutions and their scholarly record.  In spite of a general recognition of the value of digital scholarly outputs, many institutions and national systems still struggle to judge the merit of such outputs and credit their creators accordingly.

Downstream from the Digital Humanities is envisioned as an opportunity to trace current debates in the digital humanities community and beyond around issues from publication to promotion back to their roots, to understand where the systemic changes in the scholarly communications landscape have been addressed, and where their impact is yet to be assimilated.  As an
initiative of the Scholarly Publication Working Group of the NeDiMAH network (www.nedimah.eu), we invite submissions of 3000-5000 words to be submitted as working papers, to be discussed at a meeting in Zadar (Croatia) on 15-16 May 2014. After a period for revision based on feedback from the meeting, authors will have the opportunity to submit articles for consideration in an edited volume.

While abstracts of 750 words on any of the topics below will be welcomed for consideration, the list is by no means exclusive, and we are open to a very broad interpretation of the question of ‘downstream’ difficulties that arise due to the application of digital methods:

- Digital humanities research enabled through the digital medium

- Interdisciplinary aspects of modern scholarship and cross-disciplinary
collaboration of scholars

- The changing role and locus of ‘research gate keepers’ in supporting the
outputs of new methodologies, and the unseen contributions of traditional
publishers
 

  • Tracking usage and impact of publications
  • New forms of scholarly communication
  • Implications of and for the reliability and sustainability of digital objects
  • Questions of (open)access above and beyond the green/gold debate
  • Copyright laws and the meaning of ‘fair use’ in the digital age
     

 

New paradigms for the evaluation of scholarship driven by digital methods and the relationship between durable norms of scholarship (creation of knowledge, contribution to a community) and mutable semiotic and methodological systems? ‘Impact’ as a force that is changing the relationship and hierarchies among different forms of scholarly communication (which we define as a message made available to an audience) and publication (which we define as works of scholarship that have undergone an acceptance process of somesort, usually in the form of peer review)?

  • Limitations of current citation practice
  • Systemic implications of the collaborative nature of digital projects

For participants chosen from countries participating in the NeDimah network (see www.nedimah.eu for the list of participating countries), expenses to the meeting in Zadar, Croatia will be paid. It will not be possible to cover expenses for individuals whose abstracts have been accepted from other countries.

Programme Committee

Dr Jennifer Edmond, Trinity College Dublin, Chair
Dr Franjo Pehar, University of Zadar, co-Chair
Professor Susan Schreibman, Trinity Long Room Hub Associate Professor of
Digital Humanities, Trinity College Dublin

Timeline for submissions is as follows:

Submission of a 750 word abstract to the WG programme committee:  13
September 2013
Notification of acceptance of proposals for inclusion: 30 September 2013
Submission of full written presentation to WG programme committee: 15
January 2014
Comments for authors from WGPC: 28 February 2014
Revised version submitted to WGPC: 30 March 2014
Circulation of working papers to other participants: 10 April 2014
Meeting: 15-16 May 2014
Revision for publication: est Summer 2014
Publication of papers: est late 2014.

Enquiries should be sent to: Jennifer Edmond (edmondj[at]tcd.ie)