Hi all,
Frank James' posting yesterday outlined a number of concerns that BSHS and others have about the European Reference Index for the Humanities. The listings are not coherent and we are declining invitations to help 'improve' them (e.g. by adding journals or modifying ratings) because the whole scheme itself has potentially dangerous consequences for our field. We think it is fundamentally misguided and should be withdrawn.
But this is something that individuals, as well as organisations, need to be concerned about. Though the European Science Foundation (originators of the scheme) and the AHRC (who are operating it in the UK) insist that the A-B-C categorisations of journals are not intellectual rankings, it is hard to understand them in other ways -- particularly for people outside the discipline for whom the listings may quickly become proxy indicators of quality. The AHRC notes on its website (http://www.ahrc.ac.uk/About/Policy/Pages/ERIH.aspx) that it "strongly advises against the use of the ERIH outcomes as the basis for the assessment of individual candidates for employment or funding." Yet we have anecdotal evidence that these unreliable listings are being used in just such ways, and that some individuals are already being pushed by their institutions to publish in A-rated journals for career progression.
Despite the ESF's and the AHRC's disclaimers, it thus seems that ERIH is already beginning to have an impact on publishing patterns and career development in our field. How long will it be before a lower-'ranked' journal folds?
On- or off-list, I'd value any information on impacts that ERIH is having. Sharing such information can only help our field by showing up the flaws in the scheme before they do too much damage.
Best wishes,
Jeff
_______________________________________
Dr. Jeff Hughes
Senior Lecturer in History of Science and Technology
President, British Society for the History of Science
CHSTM
Simon Building
The University
Oxford Road
MANCHESTER M13 9PL
Tel: 0161 275 5857
|