FEATURE Humanities and Social Sciences
Transition time for HSS
Sharon Davies discovers some of the recent developments, challenges and emerging trends around Humanities and Social Sciences research
T
here have been a number of recent developments around HSS research communication – particularly around monograph publishing and open access (OA).
The importance of monographs in HSS publishing is highlighted in Jisc’s 2014 OApen-UK HSS Researcher Survey, part of a Jisc AHRC-funded project, which reported that 84 per cent of the 2,231 UK-based HSS researchers surveyed considered it important to produce monographs.
In comparison with the more affluent STM communities, HSS research struggles to show a return on investment to funders as it is harder to quantify. Little or no investment from the corporate sector and fewer citations in HSS journals when compared to STM subjects are two of the challenges faced by HSS authors in their attempts to have their research and work recognised.
The importance placed on monographs by HSS researchers also brings with it challenges particularly around the issue of OA.
Open access in HSS of
Humanities
Martin Paul Eve, co-director of the Open Library
(OLH), observed:
‘The current situation with respect to open access in the humanities disciplines is one of transition. Universities in the UK and Europe are scrambling to implement green open access provisions stipulated by funders. ‘This is a mode under which researchers publish wherever they choose and then deposit a copy of their accepted manuscript in their institution’s repository, sometimes with an embargo stipulated by the publisher, claimed
28 Research Information AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2015
as necessary in order to protect their [the publisher’s] revenue stream. This movement is far slower in nations like the United States where there are no centralised funder mandates to normalise the practice.’ Eve continued:
‘By contrast, gold
open access, often (but not necessarily) implemented by a mode of author/institution- facing charges, is struggling to find traction in the HSS disciplines. The problem is that this route, if worked through these charges, is usually more expensive and unaffordable for these disciplines because it concentrates costs. This has been coupled with researcher resistance for fears that they will not be able to publish work with this business model – important because it is used as the criteria for
‘The current situation with respect to open access in the humanities disciplines is one of transition’
hiring/promotions. This business model is not intrinsic to gold OA but it is the route that many traditional publishers are implementing.’ Eve added: ‘The situation for books – which
play an important role in the HSS disciplines for
the communication of a long-form
argument – is ever trickier. While Geoffrey Crossick’s important report for HEFCE [Monographs and Open Access 2015] earlier this year, on which I served as an expert advisor, noted that open access for many books is likely to be a significant part of the future, we
are at an early stage and we need a range of experiments with business models and forms to ensure a transition that does the least damage. The current situation for OA for books is that we have a sustainable but not scalable solution.’ Caren Milloy, head of projects at Jisc, added: ‘We know that HSS researchers are finding getting published very hard. In the 2014 OAPEN-UK survey, of respondents who said that it was important or very important for their career to publish monographs, 50 per cent felt that it was difficult or very difficult for someone at their career stage and in their discipline to do so. Academics early in their careers felt this particularly strongly and this is something that open access must address – early-career academics need to feel able to take the open
@researchinfo
www.researchinformation.info
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40