British Academy Policy Study: Electronic Resources for Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences

The Academy has established a Working Group to review the current status, and likely development and needs, of electronic resources for UK research in the Humanities and Social Sciences. The Group expects to report by the end of 2004, and welcomes input from interested parties, whether by completing a survey questionnaire or by particular comments. The terms of reference for the Policy Study are given below.

Survey of researchers

The Academy is contacting a sample of researchers directly. Any UK researcher who has not received a direct request to complete the Academy's questionnaire is invited to do so and return their response as indicated.

Comment

Anyone who wishes to comment on the issues identified in the Study's Terms of Reference for the Review is invited to do so by email to the Secretary of the Working Group at britacwg@aol.com by 10th September 2004.

Policy Study Terms of Reference

Information technology is changing the nature of resources for research. Old resources are taking new forms, eg electronic journals, and new resources are appearing, eg websites. These electronic, or e-resources can be grouped under the headings of electronic publishing; computer databases and archives; and digital libraries.

The aim of the policy study is to identify, for the Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS),

  1. what HSS needs for e-resources are;
  2. whether these needs are specific to HSS, as opposed to researchers generally, in the nature of the resources or forms of access to them;
  3. how, if these needs are special, they can be factored into current national policies, strategies, and practices.

Most of the current e-resource action is driven by the scientific and technical community’s pressures, interest and needs, notably publisher consolidation and reaction to it (eg ScienceDirect and Public Library of Science), and large-scale collaborative data gathering (eg genome database projects), with the advantage in many cases of substantial funding and government or other institutional support (eg Biobank). These developments are having knock-on effects on other important matters, such as intellectual property ownership.

At the same time, library-based initiatives are underway in the UK, notably the Research Support Libraries Group’s proposal for a Research Libraries Network, and the SUNCAT project for a national serials catalogue, that are important for HSS researchers. Thus one aspect of the study is to relate HSS e-resource needs to current and likely changes in the UK’s library-based resource provision.

The specific terms of reference for the study are therefore:

  1. To assess the development of existing initiatives in e-resource provision, to determine how HSS will be affected.
  2. To assess the impact of the way the publications market for e-resources operates on HSS.
  3. To assess the impact of other institutional or structural factors (eg research council protocols) on e-resources for HSS.
  4. To assess the implications of the very wide dispersion of HSS research resources, to determine whether this has disadvantages for the provision of HSS e-resources.
  5. To assess whether some subjects (eg modern languages), or institutions (eg learned societies) are or would be disadvantaged in the provision of e-resources.
  6. To establish whether the British Academy could have any particular role in relation to gaps or deficiencies in e-resource supply for HSS.

Membership of the Working Group

Professor K I B Spärck Jones (Chair), Emeritus Professor of Computers and Information, University of Cambridge
Professor R J Bennett, Professor of Geography, University of Cambridge
Mr P W H Brown, Secretary, British Academy
Dr C Field, Director of Scholarship and Collections, The British Library
Mr R K Fisher, Executive Director, Humanities and Social Sciences Publishing, CUP
Professor R J P Kain, Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Montefiore Professor of Geography, University of Exeter
Professor D W Rhind, Vice-Chancellor, City University
Professor D Robey, Head of School of Modern Languages, University of Reading, and Director of the AHRB’s ICT Arts and Humanities Research Programme
Dr S Ross, Director of Humanities Computing & Information Management, University of Glasgow
Professor K Schürer, Director of ESDS and the UK Data Archive, University of Essex
Mr D Worlock, Chairman of Electronic Publishing Services Ltd, London
Mr G Smith, Secretary to the Working Group

NOTES TO EDITORS

Published:

23 July 2004

  1. Outcomes of other policy reviews conducted by the Academy are available online from the Academy's website.
  2. The British Academy is the National Academy for the Humanities and Social Sciences.
  3. Established by Royal Charter in 1902, the British Academy is an independent learned society promoting the humanities and social sciences. It is composed of Fellows elected in recognition of their distinction as scholars in the humanities and social sciences.
  4. More information is available from the Academy's website

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