The traditional and established way of the print days of publishing, discussion and citation in other papers has been evolving in a digital direction. In parallel, but often unconnected, new technical means enable researchers to communicate and interact in a much faster and, sometimes, more efficient way using blogs, internet forums and social networks. The challenge is to combine the advantages of the traditional system (reliable trusted references, peer review, recognition by community) with the new digital means (dynamic, faster, time-independent, wider spread, less exclusive, much more open) to establish an innovative way of scientific communication.
The PARTHENOS Hub tries to narrow this gap. It is envisioned as an open accessible publication and interaction platform for the Humanities research communities. It experiments with combining the traditional format of publishing in journals with the more dynamic, interactive new media (such as blogs, internet forums and social networks). By bringing these two together, it is our aim to make the most out of the advantages of both, establishing an innovative new way of scientific communication.
The Hub is structured around thematic “issues” relevant for a specific area of interest. An editor-in-chief appointed for each issue will take the responsibility of selecting and ensuring scientific quality of content. The Hub will offer resources needed, e.g. technical for presentation and permanent storage for the more volatile content through collaborating repositories providing persistent identifiers (PID), and editorial through the involvement of an advisory board for supervision and review.
In accordance with the FAIR principles the Hub will bring together diverse sources of knowledge (e.g. articles, blog entries etc.) and merge them in a coherent issue on one platform. This results in a freely accessible, citable and enabling discussion environment. At the same time, the editor and the contributors of an issue can receive scientific credit for non-traditional works, through a structured and transparent process. Thus, the concept acknowledges the value of diverse new and unconventional sources of knowledge by providing a platform to evaluate and curate them, assessing and highlighting their legitimacy.