Theorising digital scholarship – introducing the new edition

Costa, Cristina; Murphy, Mark

Abstract

This is the first edition of our new online Journal, the Journal of Applied Social Theory, and it makes sense to launch the journal via a special edition on theorising digital scholarship. After all, the journal is online and fully accessible to anyone who wishes to read it (i.e., including those outside high education). It is also the journal wing of an established blogging platform www.socialtheoryapplied.com – a site co-edited by the co-editors of the journal, both of whom are experienced at using digital platforms (Wordpress, Facebook, Twitter) for publishing purposes. Digital scholarship is therefore of immense interest to us, and bringing social theory to bear on the field is an activity we both wanted to get our teeth into.
Those of us who engage in digital scholarship do so for a host of reasons, and it would be foolish to paint us all with the same brush. Some digital scholars see the web as a place that can free up writing, communication and dissemination activity – a welcome alternative to the slow and cumbersome way in which traditional scholarship often gets published. Publishing via the web gives one immediate access to readers and fellow scholars, and offers the opportunity at least to engage in discussion about issues of relevance in real time. Others do it for political reasons, as part of an open access movement that pits itself against an outdated and undemocratic publishing cabal. And there are those who have no other alternative routes to publishing apart from the digital.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jun 1, 2016
• Publication Date: Jun 26, 2016
• Deposit Date: Apr 11, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 11, 2018
• Journal: Journal of Applied Social theory
• Print ISSN: 2398-5836
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 1
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 1-4
• Keywords: digital scholarship, theory
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/910708
• Publisher URL: http://socialtheoryapplied.com/journal/jast/
• Related Public URLs: http://socialtheoryapplied.com/journal/jast/article/view/45/5
• Contract Date: Apr 11, 2018