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School of somethingFACULTY OF OTHER

School of HumanitiesFACULTY OF ARTS

The Research(er) Lifecycle: An Arts Researcher Perspective

Dr Jonathan R. Topham

Centre for the History and Philosophy of Science


An Arts Researcher PerspectiveDr. JONATHAN R. TOPHAM, CENTRE FOR HPS

1. WHO AM I?

• Somewhat unconventional career trajectory in the interdisciplinary field of History and Philosophy of Science (HPS), involving many years of project work, much of it library-based.

• Natural scientist, turned historian, turned historian of the book…

• Darwin Correspondence Project, Cambridge University Library. www.darwinproject.ac.uk. Editing and annotating letters: overwhelming need to identify relevant research resources.

• Science in the Nineteenth-Century Periodical (SciPer) Project, Universities of Leeds/Sheffield. www.sciper.org. Indexing Victorian periodicals: new need to come to grips with the digital research environment.

• Since 2005, (Senior) Lecturer in HPS.



2. RESEARCH PROJECT LIFECYCLE I: SciPer PROJECT

• Research idea developed by academic staff in Leeds and Sheffield.

• Scoped out using a White Rose-funded research student to identify available periodicals in the two universities and beyond.

• Informal negotiations with the Brotherton Library and the Sheffield HRI prior to application concerning provision of necessary information-related resources.

• Funding secured from Leverhulme Trust and AHRC for three post-doctoral research fellows.

• Additional necessary resources identified by project staff during course of project and funded from existing budgets.

• Further informal provision of resources, including facilities for receptions, exhibitions, and images of library collections for publication.



3. RESEARCH PROJECT LIFECYCLE II: THE NEW FUNDING IMPERATIVE

• Traditional model of the lone arts/humanities researcher brought into question by new funding environment: research must pay!

• Project-based research encouraged or required by funding agencies, often interdisciplinary or international.

• Increasing emphasis on (a) being responsive to funding calls, (b) being prepared to build on local resources/heritage, and (c) being responsive to local strategic priorities.

• Creates new opportunities for information professionals to be involved.



4. RESEARCH PROJECT LIFECYCLE III: EXPANDING ROLE OF INFORMATION PROFESSIONALS

• The growing need to match funding opportunities with suitable projects and resources increases the reliance of academic staff on information professionals for assistance.

• New developments in securing academic/information professional partnerships. E.g. Centre for the Comparative History of Print, University of Leeds.

• Wider value of workshops tied in with research centres and seminars to explore possible avenues for funded projects. E.g. Eighteenth-Century Seminar, University of Leeds.

• Potential usefulness of library-focused academic workshops, exploring the potential of library collections for funded research.



5. RESEARCH PROJECT LIFECYCLE IV: SECURING RESOURCES

• New imperative for academic staff to include specialist library resource provision in funding applications. E.g. microform copies of key manuscript collections.

• Value of consultancy in suitably resourcing research projects.

• Importance of joined-up thinking in procurement of fundamental resources: the limitations of departmental budgets and the need for cross-faculty or even regional collaboration.

• Need for publicity in regard to Cinderella resources (e.g. microforms): increased resourcing might simply involve increased recognition of existing resources.



6. RESEARCH PROJECT LIFECYCLE V: OTHER ASPECTS

• Data management and preservation.

• The Darwin Project and the SciPer Project involved external data management and preservation providers, but these are clearly critical aspects of many humanities research projects.

• Public engagement with research.

• In the new funding environment, libraries offer possibilities for public lectures and exhibitions that might carry research to wider audiences.



7. RESEARCHER LIFECYCLE I: LIFELONG LEARNING

• No longer the case, if ever it was, that learning the craft of the arts/humanities researcher is something done solely at the beginning of one’s academic career.

• The advent of digital media has led to a rapidly changing research environment, requiring arts/humanities researchers constantly to rethink their practices and learn new skills.

• Transformation of two core activities: (a) locating relevant literature and (b) using source materials.

• The rapid rate of change becomes apparent by setting the same research exercise year on year: in the space of a decade, the possible and appropriate techniques for carrying out a simple historical task have been utterly transformed.

• Difficult to teach old dogs new tricks!



8. RESEARCHER LIFECYCLE II: THE PROMISE AND CHALLENGE OF NEW MEDIA

• Locating relevant literature: (1) what has been done in the field? (2) how can I identify and locate relevant primary source materials?

• Traditional literature search dependent on academic and/or information professional expertise, but hampered by limits of knowledge and of holdings.

• New research environment provides burgeoning range of bibliographical resources, scholarly websites, full-text resources (e.g. JSTOR), and scholarly indexes.

• Digital environment also provides a wide range of informal resources accessed through search engines (Google). Massively important in expediting and extending research, but raises major issues of authority and analysis.



9. RESEARCHER LIFECYCLE III: THE PROMISE AND CHALLENGE OF NEW MEDIA

• New kinds of questions become possible with the use of digital media. E.g. examining changing language use.

• New kinds of skills are required to answer such questions. E.g. Boolean searching, statistics.

• Renewed emphasis on core skills: the necessity of defining meaningful research questions, rather than answer questions because one can.

• New access to a wide range of primary source material previously unavailable outside of the ‘golden triangle’.

• Danger of losing touch with the materiality of historical source materials.

• Danger of becoming overwhelmed by the enormity of the resource.



10. RESEARCHER LIFECYCLE IV: NEW TRAINING IMPERATIVES

• Existing pattern combining training by academics and information professionals clearly valuable for beginning researchers, although perhaps requiring closer integration.

• The challenge of established researchers: more likely to become involved in training driven by research agenda. Suggests a case for research workshops involving both academics and information professionals.

• At present, little emphasis is given by academics or information professionals to the large-scale issues about the research process arising out of new media. Again suggests a case for research workshops involving both academics and information professionals.

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