Open Scholarship in the Humanities

by Paul Longley Arthur, Lydia Hearn

Overview

Exploring the rise of open scholarship in the digital era and its transformational impact on how knowledge is created, shared, and accessed, this open access book offers new insights on the history, development, and future directions of openness in the humanities and identifies key drivers, opportunities, and challenges.

The concept of open research is reconfiguring scholarly communication across all disciplines, changing how understandings are produced through more accessible, participatory, ethical, and transparent approaches, reaching and involving far broader and more diverse publics. Considering multiple stakeholder perspectives, Arthur and Hearn argue that for the humanities to proactively contribute to open knowledge at the global scale, new ways of thinking are needed within every part of the system. In the open information economy, the humanities are on a trajectory following the sciences, but parts of the world are almost completely left out. A cultural shift is required for universities to unlock the powerful potential of humanities open scholarship. In this wide-ranging overview, the authors show why and how the global research community must work together for meaningful outcomes. Open scholarship has undergone a profound change since its beginnings from a call to action to an essential principle in research organizations internationally. However, the core impulse remains: to reshape the information environment and harness the world's knowledge for the greatest benefit of society.

The eBook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by Edith Cowan University.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781350237476
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	08/21/2025
Pages:	160
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Paul Longley Arthur is Vice-Chancellor's Professorial Research Fellow and Chair in Digital Humanities and Social Sciences, at Edith Cowan University, Western Australia. He speaks and publishes widely on major challenges and changes facing 21st-century society, from the global impacts of technology on communication, culture and identity to migration and human rights.

Lydia Hearn has over forty years of research experience in Australia, Colombia, Egypt, the Netherlands, United Kingdom, and United States. Much of her focus has been on open collaborative development aimed at translating policy into practice through equity and inclusion.

Table of Contents

List of Tables
List of Abbreviations
Acknowledgements
About the Authors

Introduction: Unlocking Scholarship
Chapter 1: Scholarly Communication from Past to Present
Chapter 2: Global Policies Promoting Openness
Chapter 3: Barriers in Implementing Open Scholarship
Chapter 4: Toward the Open Humanities
Chapter 5: Reshaping how Universities Assess Research Impact
Conclusion: Pathways to Action

Notes
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

This book offers a clarion call to academia for the necessity of participating in "the global drive toward an interconnected digital future". Open Scholarship in the Humanities is required reading for digital humanists, chairs of humanities departments, librarians, directors of digital humanities centers, and deans of liberal arts colleges.” —Laura C. Mandell, Professor of English Literature and Founding Director of the Center of Digital Humanities, Texas A&M University, USA

“Paul Longley Arthur and Lydia Hearn's Open Scholarship in the Humanities gives a concise and up-to-date history and context for open, digital practices in the humanities. A must-read for anyone new to the debate, with plenty also for old hands, Open Scholarship in the Humanities is a crucial and accessible volume for our digital, open times.” —Martin Eve, Professor of Literature, Technology and Publishing, Birkbeck, University of London, UK

“A compendium, state-of-the art survey and synthesis – an essential entry point, providing the broadest, strongest close-reading and analysis of current open scholarship trends in the Humanities to date.” —Ray Siemens, Distinguished Professor of English, University of Victoria, Canada

From the Publisher