Towards proper evaluation of book publishing in the social sciences

Books are important in the social sciences. Monographs and edited books allow for presenting original research based on methodologies or forms of collaboration that the format of the journal article does not serve as appropriately. Books are also used to engage directly with society. This chapter first introduces book publishing in the social sciences as a diversity of genres, purposes, and audiences. We then limit the scope to peer-reviewed scholarly book publishing and describe how publication patterns differ among the disciplines of the social sciences in the dimensions of books versus journal articles and national versus international publishing. Then we focus on the structure of the scholarly book publishing market with particular attention to developments towards open access publishing. The chapter ends with our suggestions for principles that can guide proper evaluation of book publishing in the social sciences.

Let's Build Theatre Communities . . . or Not: Virtual Teaching and Scholarship in an Exclusionary World

As collaborators who have been working together virtually since 2017, we have written plays and articles, conducted artist interviews, and are in the process of writing a book about teaching older adults theatre. When the pandemic came, everything else in our lives moved online, and we encountered new challenges with both our teaching and our scholarship. We were tasked with transitioning our theatre students to a virtual environment while conducting research for our book. We knew what was successful for us, as working online had helped our own practice, but would it be effective for students? And was it possible to write a scholarly book without access to academic libraries and archives? Our experiences over the past year reminded us that it shouldn't require a pandemic to rethink best practices in teaching and research. While the lessons we learned were because of a restructured academic environment, the issues we addressed existed previously and were often ignored. These are some of the things we will take with us postpandemic as educators and scholars.

Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Stalin as highly cited researchers? Historical bibliometrics study

The motivation for our research is the view, widespread among Polish scientists, that under the Communist Party’s rule it was always necessary to refer to Marx, Engels, Lenin or Stalin (we call them ‘classics’), especially in the highly-politicised fields like humanities and social sciences, in order for the work to pass the censorship procedures and be published. Therefore, in this paper, we aim to determine whether the 'classics' were commonly cited in a formally socialist country under the rule of the Communist Party (Polish Workers' Party/Polish United Workers’ Party). To address the main research question, we use the Citation Index of the History of Polish Media that covers all publications, whether scholarly articles or book publications, on the history of Polish media; in total, 6880 publications and 59,827 citations from the 1945‒2009 period. We found that citations of the works of the ‘classics’ (N = 296) constitute 0.49% of all citations in the database used and that the practice of citing the 'classics' was extremely rare (just 64 occurrences in the analysed sample). Our research also contributes to the development of reflection in historical bibliometrics and argues that bibliographical databases need to cover various types of publications, especially scholarly book publications, written in different languages (not only in English).

Book Review: Mitchel P. Roth, Fire in the Big House: America’s Deadliest Prison Disaster. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press. 2019.

In his book, Fire in the Big House, criminal justice historian, Mitchel P. Roth provides readers with an in-depth analysis of America’s deadliest penal disaster. The book specifically examines a horrific fire which occurred at the Ohio State Penitentiary in Columbus, Ohio on April 21, 1930—Easter Monday. Even though 320 prisoners perished in this devastating event (plus two more inmates who died later of gunshots indirectly related to the fire), the author notes that there has never been a scholarly book devoted to this topic. Although this event caused only $11,000 in damage to the Columbus institution, Roth contends that it still ranks as America’s third-worst fire (excluding 9/11).

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz

Arguably the most important poet of the colonial period in Latin America, and perhaps of any time, Mexican poet and playwright Sor Juana Inés de La Cruz (b. 1648–d. 1695) has a number of claims to fame. She is arguably the most important poet of the colonial period in Latin America and among the first to be read in Europe. She is also an influential proto-feminist whose ideological vision defined generations. Her life is divided into three more or less symmetrical parts: her out-of-wedlock birth, education as a criolla, an individual of Spanish descent born in Latin America, in what is today Mexico City, and early manifestations of poetic talent; her life at the viceroyalty court, particularly her relationship with the Condesa de Paredes; and her decision to become a nun or spend her life in the convent, at which time her local and international fame challenged the male ecclesiastical hierarchy in New Spain, prompting her confessor and other authorities to silence her. Her most important works are her philosophical poem Primero sueño (First Dream, 1692), her comedia Los empeños de una casa (Pawn of a house, first performed in 1683) and Amor es más laberinto (Love is but a labyrinth, 1689), her loas or autos sacramentales—religious one-acts—including El divino Narciso (The divine Narcissus, 1689), her “Carta atenagórica” (Athenean letter, 1690) in which she debates the work of Portuguese theologian Antonio Vieira, her proto-feminist “Respuesta a Sor Filotea” (Response to Sor Filotea, published in 1700) where she responds to her confessor’s command to give up her writing, and, mostly, an assortment of sonnets and other poems, including “Hombres necios” (Stubborn men). Fluent in Latin and also active as a writer in Nahuatl, Sor Juana’s oeuvre is relatively compact: it includes poetry and theater and her autobiographical and philosophical letters. A substantial amount was published in her lifetime. After her death, there were hagiographies and, especially in the early 20th century, foundational scholarly studies. Still, she was the property of a small cadre of followers until she breached into the larger public realm and elicited enormous critical attention after Octavio Paz, Mexico’s recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature, released his years-in-the-making biography in 1982. Since then a slew of fresh, reinvigorated research has opened up new vistas on Sor Juana. Her correspondence with her confessor, the Bishop of Puebla, has been found, changing the established academic opinion that he obstructed her intellectual development. Correspondence with other colonial poets, a possible collaboration in a comedia, and other findings have inspired sorjuanistas in international forums. Sor Juana has also become a popular icon not only in Mexican culture but across the Hispanic world, especially among Latinos in the United States. Her image appears in portraits and on Mexico’s 200-peso bill; there are several biographies; and her story has been the subject of operas, movies, TV mini-series, novels, plays, and poetry collections; and her politics have inspired feminists around the world. This bibliography highlights the most important critical editions of her work, in Mexico and outside. It lists canonical scholarly book-length contributions. It catalogues translations into English and her impact among Chicanas in the United States. And it features creative works based on her life and politics. This bibliography isn’t exhaustive. It showcases Sor Juana’s most significant contributions and her reverberations in history. It opens with significant critical editions, moves to attributed works and other references, features important biographies, concentrates on selected studies principally in book form, acknowledges previous bibliographies, and showcases her presence in films, operas, theater, and in literary works. It concludes with a section on Sor Juana in the United States. Important sorjuanistas are identified with biographical dates and relevant contextual information.