ERIH Governance Structure
IMPORTANT NOTICE regarding Expert Panels
Please do not contact Expert Panel members directly in order to give them your feedback about the ERIH “initial lists”. Please note that an online feedback mechanism is available to interested parties to ensure that feedback about individual journals is submitted in a structured and secure manner. If you wish to make comments on the ERIH process in general, or on a number of “initial Lists”, please send your comments directly to the ERIH office.
ERIH Governance and panels
ERIH has a complex governance structure that reflects the historical development of the project and the nature of its stakeholders.
Standing Committee for the Humanities
The overall responsibility for ERIH lies with the ESF Standing Committee for the Humanities (SCH). The SCH consists of representatives of ESF Member Organisations (see below) and many SCH members are chairs of research councils and active researchers themselves. In addition to having identified the pressing need for ERIH and discussed the initial project, the SCH houses, through the SCH secretariat, the operational management of ERIH. It also vouches for the scientific integrity of the process, for example by approving the publication of initial lists. The ERIH Steering Committee reports to SCH.
ESF Member Organisations
The c. 80 ESF Member Organisations (MOs) include national research councils, research performing organisations and academies. After requesting the development of a reference index for the Humanities at a European level, MOs made and continue to make resources available for the running of ERIH.
In the early stages of the project, MOs compiled lists of journals to be considered for inclusion in ERIH through consultation with scholars or by relying on existing national reference tools. These lists were then analysed and assessed by Expert panels in order to create draft lists. The draft lists were offered for wide consultation in 2006 in advance of being published as 'initial' lists in 2007. MOs are also responsible for appropriate uses of the 'initial lists' by their organisations. Their ongoing involvement in ERIH is coordinated through individuals who agree to act as national contact points. A list of ESF Member Organisations can be found here.
ERIH Steering Committee
The ERIH Steering Committee meets three times a year. It has been appointed by the SCH plenary meeting. The Steering Committee is responsible for overall quality control of the project, for example, the comparative calibration of the lists. Members also devise the ERIH guidelines that are to be applied to the ERIH lists by Member Organisations and Expert panels. The Steering Committee accompanies the work of the Expert panels through annual meetings with the Chairs of the Expert panels and the ERIH Coordinator acts as secretary to the Steering Committee. A list of ERIH Steering Committee members can be found here.
ERIH Expert panels
The ERIH Expert panels usually comprise 4-6 experts appointed by the ERIH Steering Committee. Members are mostly university-based academics (not professionals from the publishing world or librarians) to maintain the highest level of peer review quality assurance. Members were chosen to cover as many sub-fields as possible, as well as Europe’s geographical and linguistic areas. Compromises in both cases were inevitable. Double membership from one country in one panel was avoided.
The scientific authority over the lists lies with the Expert panels and they also define the relevant discipline's scope lists. Panels meet 1-3 times depending on the size of the field and the complexity of the task.
A list of ERIH Expert panel members can be found here. Documents that set out the processes and work of three panels: Gender Studies, Musicology and Philosophy are also available to download.
