The EUI joins the HuMetricsHSS Initiative

The EUI joins the HuMetricsHSS Initiative, an international partnership to support the development and implementation of new methods for assessing the nature and quality of scholarship in the humanities and social sciences. 

Through the Library, the EUI joins Michigan State University and other international partners on the Humane Metrics for the Humanities and Social Sciences (HuMetricsHSS) Initiative after MSU has received a $695,000 grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to fund the initiative for a second time. 

HuMetricsHSS supports the development and implementation of new methods for assessing the nature and quality of scholarship in the humanities and social sciences. 

At the heart of this work is the recognition that the culture of higher education is shaped by practices of scholarly communication. In an era in which metrics increasingly shape how scholarship is undertaken and evaluated, HuMetricsHSS takes an innovative approach that begins by identifying values that enrich practices of scholarship in order to expand the breadth of what counts as a “scholarly contribution."

Over the next 18 months, the Mellon grant will fund onsite values-focused workshops at a number of institutions in the United States and Europe, research into the current processes of scholarly evaluation, the creation of a values toolkit, and continued development of HuMetricsHSS software.

“As the European partner we are keen on bringing the European perspective to the HuMetricsHSS work and foster constructive engagement with our peer European institutions around assessment in the Humanities and Social Sciences. We at the EUI Library are fully aware that the issue of academic assessment is central to the European agenda around the adoption of Open Science practices and we will bring the innovative HuMetricsHSS perspective to it with the goal of  helping individuals and institutions successfully move through this time of culture change.” says Simone Sacchi, Open Science Librarian at the EUI and co-Principal Investigator on HuMetricsHSS.

The HuMetricsHSS initiative is led by an international group including Nicky Agate, Assistant Director of Scholarly Communication and Digital Projects at Columbia University; Rebecca Kennison, Executive Director and Principal of the nonprofit K|N Consultants; Christopher P. Long, Dean of the College of Arts & Letters at Michigan State University and Professor of Philosophy; Jason Rhody, Program Director at the Social Science Research Council; Simone Sacchi, Open Science Librarian at the European University Institute; Bonnie Thornton Dill, Dean of the College of Arts and Humanities (ARHU) at the University of Maryland and Professor of Women’s Studies; and Penny Weber, Projects Coordinator at the Social Science Research Council.

Read the official Michigan State University press release.

Follow the HuMetricsHSS initiative at http://humetricshss.org/ and @HuMetricsHSS

Contact at the EUI: Simone Sacchi