Book editors in the social sciences and humanities: an analysis of publication and collaboration patterns of established researchers in Flanders

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Book editors in the social sciences and humanities play an important role in their fields

Profiles of monograph authors in the social sciences and humanities: an analysis of productivity, career stage, co-authorship, disciplinary affiliation and gender, based on a regional bibliographic database

“…Since 2010, the VABB-SHW has been integrated into the performance-based research funding model for the universities in Flanders (Belgium). For an exhaustive account of the VABB-SHW, its procedures, selection principles and context, we refer to Engels et al (2012), Engels (2014), andOssenblok (2016).…”

“…Overall in Flanders, 16% of all SSH researchers registered in the VABB-SHW are classified as established researchers. In the humanities 17% is established, in the social sciences 16% (Ossenblok, Guns & Thelwall, 2015). 57% of monograph authors is established and 43% is non-established.…”

“…Thompson, 2005; J. W. Thompson, 2002), over the past 15 years books have remained an essential publication type for many fields in the social sciences and humanities (SSH). Previous research has shown the substantial and undiminishing share of book publications in local, regional or national databases, sometimes used in performance-based research funding systems (Engels, Ossenblok, & Spruyt, 2012;Kousha, Thelwall, & Somayeh, 2011;Puuska, 2014;Sivertsen & Larsen, 2012), the relatively high and persistent citation impact of books (Gorraiz, Purnell, & Glänzel, 2013;Leydesdorff & Felt, 2012;Torres-Salinas, Robinson-Garcia, Cabezas-Clavijo, & Jiménez-Contreras, 2013;Torres-Salinas, Rodriguez-Sanchez, Robinson-Garcia, & Fdez-Valdivia, 2013) and the role that monographs and edited books can play in aspects of collaboration and internationalization of scholarly research (Ossenblok & Engels, 2015;Ossenblok, Guns, & Thelwall, 2015;Verleysen & Engels, 2014a). Unsurprisingly, the publication of a monograph by an esteemed publisher still carries great prestige within many scholarly academic communities (Giménez-Toledo, Tejada-Artigas, & Manana-Rodriguez, 2013) and can be decisive in acquiring university tenure in humanities faculties, e.g.…”

The Flemish Performance-based Research Funding System: A Unique Variant of the Norwegian Model

“…Follow-up studies have focused on the role of editors of edited books in collaboration and the prevalence of alphabetical publishing (Guns, 2016;Ossenblok & Engels, 2015). The VABB-SHW has also allowed for several studies of the characteristics of author types that have hitherto remained largely unstudied, such as monograph authors or book editors (Ossenblok, Guns, & Thelwall, 2015;Verleysen & Ossenblok, 2017). In two studies, Verleysen and Weeren (2016a, b) clustered senior authors in the VABB-SHW by their publication patterns.…”

Integrating metrics to measure research performance in social sciences and humanities: The case of the Spanish CSIC

“…The NM involves the implementation of a quality assurance system to control that only scholarly publications with peer review are considered, while this filter has not been applied in the Spanish case. iv Editing a book has been sometimes undervalued for academic careers, but edited books may have a significant value to their fields, as they offer "multiple perspectives, a broad scope and a wide variety of methodologies" (Ossenblok, Guns, & Thelwall, 2015). In fact, a higher citation rate has been described for edited books as compared to monographs (Torres-Salinas et al 2013).…”