Journals in the arts and humanities: their role and evaluation Professor Geoffrey Crossick Warden Goldsmiths, University of London.
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Transcript Journals in the arts and humanities: their role and evaluation Professor Geoffrey Crossick Warden Goldsmiths, University of London.
Journals in the arts and
humanities: their role and
evaluation
Professor Geoffrey Crossick
Warden
Goldsmiths, University of London
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Distinctive place of journals in
arts & humanities research
Diversity of output
monographs, edited collections
edited texts, journal articles
practice outputs
No clear hierarchy of esteem
amongst as well as within each
challenge for RAE and promotion panels
esp problems for practice outputs
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Why do we want to know about
journals? Explore the terms
Use of journals to indicate:
activity and productivity
impact - relevance and use
quality - peer judgment
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Measurements and proxies
Activity &
Productivity
Quantitative
methods &
data
Impact
Quality
Tangible &
intangible
evidence
& data
Qualitative
methods & data
Increasing use of proxy metrics to infer impact and quality
Especially in context of changes to RAE
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Why is it so hard to rank journals
or use citation data?
Rank according to what criteria?
Impact factors very difficult
Citation behaviour is very different
not cumulative cf science
old work remains highly cited [See ISI list]
critical discourses as mode of research
citation not clear sign of quality/influence
the culture of the footnote
Diverse outputs - not just paper-based
Print output different arts & humanities
Lower % paper outputs in ISI-Journals
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Highest citations in ISI
humanities journals 2000
1 Karl Marx
2 Lenin
3 Shakespeare
4 Aristotle
5 The Bible
6 Plato
7 Freud
8 Chomsky
9 Hegel
10 Cicero
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RAE submissions 1996 & 2001
Humanities, Languages and Arts
Journal articles?
1996 sciences
engineering
social sciences
33%
90%
57%
42%
2001 - 37%
96%
78%
54%
Books?
1996 - 51%
sciences
6%
engineering
8%
social sciences 32%
2001 - 52%
3%
5%
28%
Book chapters
Other
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1996 - 4%
1996 - 11%
2001 2001 –
3%
9%
Journal publication & RAE quality
Journal articles as % outputs to RAE2001 by discipline
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UoA
Law
3b
83
3a
71
4
61
5 5*
53 43
Asian studies
43
56
55
42 29
History
37
36
33
33 34
Art & design
7
7
10
Music
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15
15
9
23 27
ISI journals & the arts & humanities
Publication in ISI journals often small % overall
outputs RAE 2001
Philosophy highest at 52%
Library & information management 40%
Most other subjects in 20%-29% range
English & French just 21%
Below 20% in Italian, Theology, Art & Design and
Middle Eastern & African Studies
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Current projects on quality & journals
Issue of evaluating quality very current
So too is assessing standing of journals
But they’re not the same thing at all
And decreasingly so arts & humanities
Reflect on these:
RAE and metrics
European Science Foundation’s ERIH
Humanities Indicators Project
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RAE metrics
Metrics-driven RAE
‘Neither citations nor RC income’
AHRC expert group
outputs but no proxies for their quality
Post-2008: STEM cf rest of disciplines
‘robust indicators’ being sought – for STEM
primarily HESA and bibliometric data
arts & humanities 2013+? earlier impact
consultation non-science 2009-10
national bibliometrics consortium
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European Reference Index for
the Humanities
European Science Foundation
“The ERIH lists will help to identify excellence
in Humanities scholarship & should prove
useful for the aggregate bench-marking of
national research systems…in determining
the international standing of the research
activity in a given field in a country.
However, as they stand, the lists are not a
bibliometric tool”
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Methods & goals of ERIH
Expert Panels in 15 disciplinary areas
ESF member lists, iterative consultation
Categorisation (lists emerging this year)
A = high-ranking international level
B = standard international level
C = important local/regional level
Resistance to hierarchy: why?
Say above all to strengthen peer review
How, if at all, will it be used?
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Humanities Indicators Project
American Academy of Arts & Sciences
many variables on state of humanities
Publications element:
Focus is monograph publications data
no quality indicators sought
No plans to look at journal publishing
Making humanities count: the importance of
data
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Arts & humanities journals:
the challenge of bibliometrics
Is there a challenge?
Does anyone want to do bibliometrics with arts
& humanities journals?
Little interest UK or elsewhere
In many ways for good reasons set out here
Yet looming is RAE post-2013….
can we build ‘robust measures’ without them?
can it be done with them?
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