Humanities researchers invited to complete survey on current data practices

Oxford University Press (OUP), as part of the STM Data in the Humanities group, a special-interest subgroup of the STM Research Data programme, is inviting humanities researchers to take part in a survey on current practices and the challenges they face for sharing research data, sources, and materials. The Humanities Data Sharing survey is open for responses until mid-April and is available at this link: https://bit.ly/3usm5vc.

The survey has been prepared by the STM Data in the Humanities group; a collaboration that brings together the industry’s most influential publishers to discuss how progress can be made to encourage data sharing by authors in humanities journals. This is important because while humanities research activities and outputs can differ from the sciences, the disparity is often not reflected in publishers’ standard data sharing policies and accompanying resources. Therefore, responses to the survey will be used to inform the creation of resources and guidance to assist authors in managing and sharing research data effectively.

OUP introduced its research data policy for journals in 2020. Since its launch, data policies have been adopted by over 350 journals spanning all subject areas published by OUP. As a supporter of the SHAPE (Social Sciences, Humanities, and the Arts for People and the Economy) initiative, OUP recognizes the valuable contribution of SHAPE. Through initiatives such as the Humanities Data Sharing survey, it seeks to better understand and address the ways that open research practices can be translated to the humanities disciplines to further support their contribution to society.

Rhodri Jackson, Publishing Director, Open Access, at Oxford University Press said: “We’re very pleased to support the Humanities Data Sharing survey and to encourage the participation of our author community. The survey is an excellent example of collaborative action among publishers in helping to develop and further embed open research practices.”