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Making the Most of Shifting Modes of Scholarly Communication

Making the Most of Shifting Modes of Scholarly Communication

That was the subtitle of a talk I gave at a seminar of the Centre for Humanities Innovation (CHI) at Durham University yesterday.

What I wanted to do was initiate a conversation about new and old forms of scholarly communication and offer a way of classifying them to help scholars consider taking up new forms.

Along the way, I presented two examples where scholarly use of blogs and social media led to a significant production of knowledge (and in one case, was submitted to REF, albeit as an impact case study). See (1) Mark Goodacre’s reflection of how Paul Foster, in a peer-reviewed article, engaged with an argument Goodacre made in a blog post; and (2) Francis Watson’s paper arguing that the so-called Gospel of Jesus’ Wife was a forged document (cf. the REF submission).

(By the way, well done Mark Goodacre whose blog continues to make an impressive scholarly and public impact).

I offered the following ‘final thoughts’:

  • Try something new. (see DiRTdirectory.org)
  • Don’t let REF be the tail that wags the dog.
  • Be prepared for a measured ‘reaction’ publication.
  • We are increasingly our own publishers: Think like one.

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