Open Access Scholarship

I had a librarian mention to me that they had heard about a scholar whose blog got not merely quoted but responded to and interacted with in a peer-reviewed journal article. I quickly responded by saying that I know the blogger in question – Mark Goodacre, who blogged about his experience recently.

Blogging is just one part of the changing face of scholarly communication. We need to be proactive in thinking about how the etiquette and protocols of what we do may need to change. And we also need to be proactive if we want our work to be as freely accessible as possible (on which see Ken Schenck’s recent blog post).

Here are some links related to the above themes.

First, a librarian colleague drew my attention to Sherpa/Romeo, a database which indicates the degree of open access various journals practice.

Liana Silva had a piece about academic blogging in Inside Higher Ed.

Alin Suciu pointed out that more Coptic manuscripts have been added to the Gallica database.

Randal Rauser pointed out the new online Journal of Analytic Theology.

I happened across the web site of the Jordan Center for Persian Studies, which has a number of lectures and talks related to ancient Persia.

The British Library Digital Manuscripts blog has a post about why they are blogging.

Philip Tite shared information about a new book series, “Studies in Ancient Religion and Culture.” I am not sure what their open access policy is, but it is best to ask now while the endeavor is new!

There are some post-docs available in the study of ancient religion.

Finally, as a warning to scholars: if you don’t make serious scholarship available online, then people will be left only with stuff like Kent Hovind’s “doctoral dissertation”!