Humanities Commons

Humanities Commons
Name	Humanities Commons
Formation	2011
Type	Nonprofit scholarly network
Headquarters	United States
Status	501(c)(3)

Humanities Commons Humanities Commons is an online scholarly network and infrastructure service focused on the humanities. It provides researchers, educators, and institutions with a platform for collaboration, profile creation, open access dissemination, and project hosting. The platform aligns with broader initiatives in scholarly communication and digital scholarship that include open repositories, academic social networks, and professional associations.

Overview

Humanities Commons connects scholars, librarians, and cultural institutions across initiatives such as Digital Humanities Summer Institute, JSTOR Daily, Modern Language Association, American Council of Learned Societies, Association of Research Libraries through interoperable services. The platform supports open scholarship practices akin to Public Library of Science, arXiv, BioRxiv, and complements projects like Open Library of Humanities, Directory of Open Access Journals, ScholarlyCommons efforts at universities such as University of Michigan, Columbia University, and University of Pennsylvania. It provides tools comparable to those in ORCID, CrossRef, Project MUSE, and connects with standards from organizations such as Digital Public Library of America and Creative Commons.

History

The service originated from collaborations among scholarly bodies including Modern Language Association, American Historical Association, National Endowment for the Humanities, and learned societies such as Society for Cinema and Media Studies and Renaissance Society of America. Early development involved partnerships with digital infrastructure projects at institutions like University of Illinois, University of Virginia, and community platforms influenced by Scholars Open Access Movement and initiatives from Institute of Museum and Library Services. Over time, integrations were added with identifiers and metadata standards championed by ORCID, citation linking by CrossRef, and repository practices promoted by OpenAIRE and SPARC.

Features and Services

Core services mirror functionalities available from platforms such as Zotero, Hypothesis (annotation system), Omeka, Scalar (platform), and WordPress for scholarly communication. Users can create profiles interoperable with ORCID, claim works indexed by CrossRef and WorldCat, and deposit manuscripts similar to workflows at arXiv and SSRN. The platform hosts groups and hubs modeled on community spaces like Academia.edu and ResearchGate while emphasizing open licensing in line with Creative Commons conventions. It offers integration with content-management and repository systems used by Digital Commons, Fedora Commons, and DSpace-based institutional repositories.

Governance and Funding

Governance emerged through coalitions of learned societies including Modern Language Association, American Historical Association, American Council of Learned Societies, and library consortia like Association of Research Libraries. Funding sources have included grants and awards from agencies such as the National Endowment for the Humanities, foundations like Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and institutional contributions from universities such as University of Chicago and Yale University. Operational oversight has involved advisory input from representatives of organizations like Society for Digital Humanities, European Association for Digital Humanities, and professional groups including Association for Computers and the Humanities.

Community and Membership

Membership attracts scholars from associations such as Modern Language Association, American Historical Association, Association for Jewish Studies, Medieval Academy of America, and international bodies like Royal Historical Society and European Society for Literature, Science and the Arts. Participating institutions include research libraries at Harvard University, University of California, Berkeley, Princeton University, and cultural heritage organizations such as Library of Congress and Smithsonian Institution. The community builds collaborations with projects funded by agencies like National Science Foundation and foundations including Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and engages with pedagogical networks exemplified by HASTAC and Digital Pedagogy Lab.

Impact and Criticism

Advocates compare the platform’s role to transformative projects like arXiv and Public Library of Science for increasing visibility of humanities scholarship, supporting open peer practices seen in initiatives such as PeerJ and F1000Research, and promoting interoperability championed by ORCID and CrossRef. Critics raise concerns similar to debates around Academia.edu and ResearchGate regarding sustainability, data ownership, and discoverability, and reference tensions discussed by bodies such as SPARC and Association of Research Libraries. Discussions in forums connected to Modern Language Association, American Historical Association, and Society for Cinema and Media Studies have examined issues of long-term archiving, integration with institutional repositories like DSpace and Fedora Commons, and the balance between society-led governance and external funder influence.

Category:Academic social networks Category:Open access