Open access for the arts

A blogpost by Chris Pressler about the announcement of a new OA journal from SAGE  for the social sciences and humanities raises the question of why the OA movement seems to be more interested in STM subjects than in the arts. Chris suggests it may be because of an unvoiced belief that the sciences are somehow more important.

There are also other reasons – including a publication culture in the arts and humanities that prioritises monographs over journal articles. But as Chris says, it’s good to see attention being paid specifically to the arts in the OA context. It’s a reminder that OA has a lot to offer researchers in this area – not least the ability to allow the preservation of, and access to, research outputs and data in other formats (music, images, video). Repositories don’t have to be just about text.

Some institutional repositories, for example at the University of the Arts, London, are providing thiskind of service already, and JISC’s Kultur project has been instrumental in developing innovative practice. I know repository managers are working on it. Arts researchers should seize the oportunity – shouldn’t they?

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