The European Reference Index for the Humanities (ERIH) is a Humanities in the European Research Area (HERA) Research Infrastructures project, run by the European Science Foundation (ESF). The aim of the ERIH project is to create a list of significant arts and humanities journals in Europe.
The AHRC is responsible for relaying information about the project to UK subject associations and learned societies, and eliciting feedback so that there is UK involvement in shaping the ERIH lists. The AHRC continues to represent the views of the UK academic community to the ESF and to coordinate the UK response to the project.
The initial lists and supporting documents can be accessed from the ESF website. The ESF has responded to concerns about transparency and robustness of the peer processes by publishing of the methodologies adopted by the ERIH Expert Panels in compiling the initial lists.
Following nominations earlier this year, the process of recomposing the ERIH Expert Panels is almost complete and meetings of these panels are scheduled to take place from November 2008 to April 2009. The process and methodology that underpinned the recomposition of the Panels, and an overview of the geographical distribution of the panel members is available on the ERIH website in the section entitled: Recomposition of the ERIH Expert Panels in 2008.
Use of the ERIH lists
The ESF envisage that the journal lists will help to identify excellence in Humanities scholarship and become a useful reference tool for scholars.
The AHRC strongly advises against the use of the ERIH outcomes as the basis for the assessment of individual candidates for employment or funding. In the UK, the use of journal rankings has already been expressly excluded from the development of metrics to replace the RAE. The UK Research Councils’ response to HEFCE’s consultation on the Research Excellence Framework is also clear on this point
Peer review will remain at the heart of AHRC’s own procedures for the assessment and allocation of research funding. The outcomes of the ERIH project do not and will not feature in this process.