ERIH Timeline

ERIH in 2008

ERIH is conceived as a tool to improve access to and assessment of Humanities research in Europe, initially by identifying and categorising good research journals in 15 fields of the Humanities. The lists will be revised after one year (in 2008), then updated after longer intervals.

ERIH operates as a fully peer-review based process. A vital next step is therefore to encourage the use of peer-review or similarly rigorous quality control process in all journals included in the lists; this will be achieved through sustained dialogue with editors and publishers.  

Further Developments

Some fields of Humanities research have not yet been covered (such as media studies and ethics). Consideration will be given to this issue.

Edited volumes and monographs continue to be major publication channels in the Humanities, and the intention is to include them in the next stage of the project.

ERIH aims to be the platform for the construction of a research information system for European Humanities research. It will provide a research infrastructure for the mapping and better dissemination of European journal-based research in the Humanities. By the same token, ERIH lists can be useful as a basis for VLE systems (Virtual Learning Environment).

The ERIH lists will help to identify excellence in Humanities scholarship and should prove useful for the aggregate benchmarking of national research systems, for example, in determining the international standing of the research activity carried out in a given field in a particular country. However, as they stand, the lists are not a bibliometric tool. Therefore ERIH does not encourage using the lists as the only basis for assessment of individual candidates for positions or promotions or of applicants for research grants. In the long run, the lists will be a useful reference tool for scholars when considering where to submit research articles, as they give some insight into likely audiences.