The new journal Reviews in Digital Humanities, a pilot project that focuses on peer review of digital humanities scholarship, celebrated its one year anniversary in January 2021. Co-founded and co-edited by Dr. Jennifer Guiliano Associate Professor in the Department of History at IUPUI and Roopika Risam, Associate Professor of Secondary and Higher Education and English at Salem State University, the journal was created to help address a need for peer review of digital humanities scholarship. For scholarship, the peer review process fosters critical discourse and is often upheld as the gold standard in tenure and promotion decisions. However, scholarly communities have yet to fully understand how to peer review scholarship that is digital in form.
Having produced nine issues in their first year, the journal highlights the wide variety of projects that are part of digital humanities, a field that explores the intersection of technology and the humanities. Project directors submit their project for review by providing a 500 word overview; the editors then solicit reviewers to evaluate the project and provide a 500 word evaluation. Both are published in the journal issue allowing readers to see how project directors (and their teams) define their humanities contributions while also allowing reviewers to suggest ways to improve future versions of the project. The journal published both general issues made up of nominated projects and special issues developed by experts in particular thematic areas. Special issues already available include:
- Borderlands Digital Humanities, edited by Sylvia Fernández Quintanilla
- Latinx Digital Humanities, edited by Lorena Gauthereau
- Jewish Digital Humanities, edited by Amalia S. Levi and Michelle Chesner
Importantly, all projects reviewed are included in the Reviews Project Registry which allows users to sort projects by temporal period, field of study, and topic. Recently, the journal was awarded a $66,000 planning grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation that will support the continued development of Reviews including planning for long-term sustainability. Reviews has partnered with the Educopia Institute to undertake a year-long study of stakeholders and their needs.
Want to be part of Reviews in Digital Humanities? Here are a few ways to get started:
- Submit a project of your own for review;
- Join the reviewer pool by dropping Reviews an email at reviewsindigitalhumanities@gmail.com indicating your areas of interest;
- Tell your students, colleagues, and friends about the journal and encourage them to submit their work.
Jennifer Guiliano is an Associate Professor in the Department of History, IU School of Liberal Arts at IUPUI