The Impact of the Humanities: or, What’s Next for Open Access

Abstract

This presentation will focus on some of the specificities of open access (OA) in relation to the humanities. Not least among these is the need to develop more OA strategies around the publication of books as well as peer-reviewed journals and journal articles, as it is books published by respected international presses that tend to be the most valued mode of publication in humanities disciplines. But alongside what Open Access can do for the humanities, this presentation will also ask 'What can the humanities do for Open Access?' As the above example regarding the prestige awarded to books in comparison to journals illustrates, researchers in the humanities have developed very different professional cultures and intellectual practices to those in the STMs who have dominated the discussion around OA to date. The former tend to pay far more attention to questions of academic authority and professional legitimacy in relation to changing ideas of scholarly writing, peer review, the academic journal, authorship, intellectual property and digital piracy. This presentation will thus point to some of the exciting new challenges the OA movement is likely to face as it increasingly impacts on the humanities, and as the humanities in turn impact on it.