Open Scholarship in the Humanities : An OA Author Intervention

Fathallah, J. (2026) Open Scholarship in the Humanities : An OA Author Intervention. Journal of Electronic Publishing, 29 (1). pp. 133-158.

Abstract

In dialogue with Marcel Knöchelmann’s (2019) call for a discourse of openness for the humanities, this article employs an autoethnographic narrative informed by cultural and sociological theory to explore the experience of publishing an open access (OA) book. Drawing on Miranda Fricker’s (2007) work on epistemic injustice, this account aims to help bridge epistemic gaps, as junior scholars are not often recognized as sources of knowledge in publishing debates. Utilizing both classic cultural theory and feminist new materialism, I reflect on the structures that have constituted me materially and relationally as a scholar and have shaped my first OA book as an intervention in the field. I agree with Knöchelmann that the predefined discourse of open science has limited utility for humanities researchers but disagree that practice and experimentation should not be part of a new discourse of openness for the humanities. Instead, I follow Janneke Adema (2021) in arguing for the book and its production practices as discursive statements and interventions in practice. I argue that, as one such intervention, arts and humanities researchers must reject outdated notions of academic prestige and actively and deliberately participate in a transformation of academic publishing in which OA is the norm to ensure that old forms of exclusion and inequity are not simply replaced with new ones. I further argue that legacy publishing strategies no longer reward early career researchers (ECRs) and that the visibility and reach of OA and the ability to work with a scholar-led publisher are more beneficial to academics than the “prestige” of traditional publishers. Academics, as readers, authors, and human beings in the humanities, must also bear some of the risk of this necessary transition to an ethical, sustainable open access landscape for books.