Are Digital Humanities platforms facilitating sufficient diversity in research? A study of the Transkribus Scholarship Programme
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 7151794 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Joseph Nockels (0000-0002-4577-6596, University of Edinburgh, corresponding author), Paul Gooding (0000-0003-1044-509X, University of Glasgow), Melissa Terras (0000-0001-6496-3197, Edinburgh College) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 40 |
| Issue | Supplement_1 |
| Pages | i46-i65 |
| Publication date | 2025-01-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Digital Scholarship in the Humanities (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2055-7671 • E-ISSN: 2055-768X |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1093/llc/fqae018 |
| OpenAlex | W4394869822 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 14 |
To what extent do Digital Humanities (DH) platforms support access to diverse user cohorts? We take, as a case study, the Automated Text Recognition (ATR) platform Transkribus and its Transkribus Scholarship Programme (TSP), which provides free processing credits to eligible users. Using a mixed methods approach we address the following questions: What are the demographics of those using the TSP scheme? What work is enabled by such a scheme? How can this inform more equitable access to DH platforms? The findings demonstrate how ATR tools are currently used and made accessible. TSP applicants are overwhelmingly students (n = 111/156, 71.15 per cent) drawn from universities and research institutes, mostly in Europe, but are globally distributed; representing institutions that do not hold shares in Transkribus, and indicating a diverse user pipeline. Further work is required to increase potential benefits of the scholarship and to ensure sustainability. Increased dialogue between the Recognition and Enrichment of Archival Document-COOP and applicants would assist in the calculation of processing costs. We show financial—or in-kind—support is necessary to increase access to paid-for platforms, ensuring a diversity of DH research. We also provide recommendations for platform providers and funding bodies regarding access and the impact this can have, including locating a sustainable balance between absorbing the costs of maintaining DH or digital scholarship tools and providing sufficient support and training to further enable diverse research
Data science · Demographics · Digital humanities · Digital scholarship · Diversity (politics) · Knowledge management · Library science · Pipeline (software) · Political science · Public relations · Scheme (mathematics) · Scholarship · Sociology · Sustainability · Work (physics) · World Wide Web · Computer Science · Digital Humanities and Scholarship · Engineering · FinTech, Crowdfunding, Digital Finance · Mathematics · Topic Modeling
| Highly cited | No |
|---|