This week marked the release of the first issue of the DHCommons journal, “a new kind of publication for digital humanities projects.” DHCommons seeks to provide robust peer review of projects that are still in process, in the model of NINES and 18th Connect. The work of the journal builds upon what DHCommons, an initiative of centerNet, already does – acts as a hub for digital humanities scholars and projects seeking assistance and collaboration.
In launching the journal, the DHCommons team attempts to address the “assessment gap” of digital humanities projects. According to the introduction to Issue 1,
Digital humanities scholars are being hired, often at the junior level, in the expectation that they will lead ambitious digital research projects, which are often large-scale efforts that span disciplines, academic units, and substantial periods of time. However, there is little agreement about how such projects can be certified by the scholarly community; we largely do not know how to evaluate the very kinds of scholarship we increasingly wish to see produced in the digital humanities [Nowviskie 2011; Rockwell 2011]. This is a particularly crucial issue if we wish for work in the digital humanities to have relevance and significance within the field, but also beyond disciplinary boundaries.
DHCommons seeks to address this gap by offering a publication channel that, although influenced by traditional journal mechanisms and workflows, was developed around a new concept which we hope will contribute to improving scholarly practices in the digital era… DHCommons complements the growing cadre of journals publishing digital humanities articles by providing a venue for full-project peer review.
The introduction of the publication of Issue 1 closed with another announcement – Padmini Ray Murray (Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology) is coming on board as the Managing Editor for DHCommons.
RESOURCE: DHCommons Journal, Issue 1 https://t.co/MxmxHUESLi @DHandLib dh+lib