In the final episode of this four-part series, our guests focus on the library’s role as an advisor and guide for data sharing adoption in the Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS). Dr. Rebecca Taylor-Grant, Head of Open Data Initiatives, and Dr. Emily Farrell, Global Commercial Director for Open Research, both at Taylor & Francis, point out that the research process begins long before an author contacts a publisher; libraries, however, can introduce researchers to data sharing practices, formatting, and repositories at the very start. Aware of both institutional and funder policies that academics may need to follow, librarians have a unique, cross-functional understanding of the broader research ecosystem. As Emily and Rebecca note, many libraries have already embraced data sharing, and further collaboration between libraries and publishers will only provide improvements in the open data landscape.

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In the third episode of this four-part series, Dr. Rebecca Taylor-Grant, Head of Open Data Initiatives, and Dr. Emily Farrell, Global Commercial Director for Open Research, both at Taylor & Francis, discuss the development of data sharing policies, repositories, and resources. First, Rebecca walks through the creation of T&F’s data sharing policy specific to Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS). Underscoring the need for language applicable to HSS (and not just STEM), Rebecca explains the process of researching existing data guidelines and gathering examples of HSS data. In addition, Rebecca chats about a 2022 exploratory survey on researchers’ current understandings and use of HSS data sharing and her paper on open data in the Humanities, also published in 2022. Next, Rebecca and Emily explore the advantages of data repositories over sharing data via email and outline key open data resources and training available from T&F to aid authors.

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In this episode, Francesca Buckland, Vice President of Product Management for the Web of Science at Clarivate, joins The Authority File to discuss artificial intelligence applications in academic libraries. To start, Fran details Clarivate’s history with developing AI products, including seeking guidance from the library community. Further, she chats about generative AI enhancing research efficiencies and underpinning critical thinking, particularly through Clarivate’s recently launched Web of Science Research Assistant. As Fran explains, the tool offers scholarly overviews, visualizations, and guided research workflows, all based in the Web of Science Core Collection. Digging into the needed balance between automation and human oversight, our guest also covers key topics like AI transparency, ethical design, and data security.

Next, Fran highlights Clarivate’s recent Pulse of the Library report. Revealing librarians’ progress toward establishing institutional AI plans, the report dovetails with Clarivate’s interest in utilizing AI for core librarian tasks and to support the library mission. Finally, as industry standards and guidelines on AI continue to enter the scholarly landscape, Fran anticipates better guardrails around ethical AI use and transparency, in addition to more advanced AI analytics tools to assess large data sets.

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In the second episode of this four-part series, Dr. Rebecca Taylor-Grant, Head of Open Data Initiatives, and Dr. Emily Farrell, Global Commercial Director for Open Research, both at Taylor & Francis, dig into the benefits and challenges of data sharing in the Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS). Rebecca starts by outlining the community aspect of data sharing and how that aligns with T&F’s own initiatives toward open research and responding to cultural changes in the scholarly communication landscape. Next, Emily walks through her 2024 coauthored book, Life in a New Language from Oxford University Press. The title evaluates six different ethnographic data sets on adult language learning, providing a helpful use case for sharing data between researchers. Last, our guests surface the unique concerns from humanists and social scientists over data-sharing policies and how these could potentially be addressed.

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In this four-part series, Dr. Rebecca Taylor-Grant, Head of Open Data Initiatives, and Dr. Emily Farrell, Global Commercial Director for Open Research, both at Taylor & Francis, join the program to discuss data sharing in the Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS). While STEM fields have largely established official channels for sharing and accessing research data, HSS disciplines still lag behind. Particular issues arise in identifying what qualifies as data in these fields and the purpose of making this information accessible to fellow scholars. Covering current data sharing policies and data categorization variations between the Humanities and Social Sciences, our guests investigate why HSS data sharing is important and how librarians can support this work through guidance and institutional services.

In this first episode, Emily and Rebecca examine the current landscape for HSS data sharing. They explain what can be categorized as data in HSS, how the social sciences have a slight leg up in this area, and how T&F has developed explicit guidance to help researchers recognize potential data sets. Our guests also share thoughts on how the 2022 OSTP Nelson Memo has impacted data sharing and speculate on how the incoming Trump administration may affect these policies in the US.

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In the final episode of this four-part series, Lori Beckstead and Dario Llinares, coeditors of the forthcoming Podcast Studies: Practice into Theory, look ahead to the future of scholarly podcasting. First, Lori underscores podcasting’s ability to center marginalized voices by spotlighting lived experiences and demonstrating oral communication as a legitimate form of scholarship. Further, Dario parses through the benefits of creating podcasts to study the medium itself, much like the way media studies scholars create video essays about their research.

Next, Lori explains how librarians can help establish podcasts in traditional scholarly communication channels by preserving academic podcasts in institutional repositories. Our guests also recommend a list of scholarly podcasts including The Amplify Network, Her Media Diary, and Dario’s own The Cinematologists. Last, Lori and Dario postulate about the potential impacts of Google’s NotebookLM, a generative AI tool that creates extremely realistic-sounding podcast episodes from user-submitted prompts.

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In the third episode of this four-part series, our guests, the coeditors of Podcast Studies: Practice into Theory, discuss academic podcasting in action, talking through pedagogical practices and podcasting’s appeal to general audiences. First, Lori Beckstead, Associate Professor of sound media in the RTA School of Media at Toronto Metropolitan University, highlights Oliver McGarr’s three key ways podcasts can be used in the classroom: substitutional, supplementary, and creative. Next, podcaster and academic Dario Llinares explains why podcasting is so effective at communicating with the public, spotlighting characteristics such as emotionality and open-source distribution. Last, Lori and Dario chat about podcasting’s barriers to entry and how the medium can provide a more inclusive form of scholarship.

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In the second episode of this four-part series, podcaster and academic Dario Llinares and Lori Beckstead, Associate Professor of sound media in the RTA School of Media at Toronto Metropolitan University, explore how scholarly podcasting can challenge the traditional principles of academic research. To start, our guests share the ways podcast studies fits within media studies and outline why academics choose podcasting to discuss their scholarship. Underscoring the conversational and “human” characteristics of the medium, they explain how a podcast works in conversation with the guests, research, and audience, encouraging a concise and accessible approach to scholarly communication. Further, Lori and Dario share that while institutions have begun to understand and appreciate the scholarly potential and rigor of podcasting, the medium’s emphasis on fostering ongoing dialogues opposes traditional research’s focus on citations and output.

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The Authority File is no stranger to discussing podcasts. Despite the Spider-Man meme of it all, podcasting works as an effective tool to talk through the medium’s pedagogical, cultural, and academic applications. Our guests for November’s series—podcast hosts and producers themselves—are familiar with this hall of mirrors, dropping by to discuss their forthcoming edited collection, Podcast Studies: Practice into Theory.

This month, we chat with Dario Llinares, Associate Professor of Film and Media at Ravensbourne University, London, and Lori Beckstead, Associate Professor of sound media in the RTA School of Media at Toronto Metropolitan University, on their goal to define—or, at least, lay some parameters around—Podcast Studies. Explaining the rise of podcasting in the research community, Dario and Lori explore how podcasts can both reject and fall within academia’s traditional guardrails for scholarship. Further, they dig into the personal touch of using one’s voice to discuss research, how faculty use podcasts in the classroom, and the accessibility of the medium.

In the first episode of this four-part series, Dario and Lori trace their paths to editing Podcast Studies and becoming podcasters. In addition, they outline the book’s objectives to characterize the Podcast Studies discipline, highlight podcasts’ academic and non-academic uses, and include diverse, global perspectives and methodologies. Last, our guests reflect on the process of gathering the book chapters and their intent to invert the “Theory into Practice” phrase commonly seen on monographs in the book title.

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In the final episode of this four-part series, our guests look at contemporary issues facing our information environment, media, and news cycles. First, Dan Chibnall, STEM Librarian & Associate Professor of Librarianship at Drake University, and Nick Anstead, Associate Professor in the Department of Media and Communications at the London School of Economics, reflect on the threat of AI-generated misinformation in the form of written text and, more recently, images and video. Next, Nick and Dan dig into contemporary trends of real-time analysis and fact-checking. Noting that fact-checking doesn’t always reach the audience receiving the false information, they also point out that these efforts can inadvertently share misinformation more widely, adding attention to outlandish or harmful views. Last, our guests discuss guidance for librarians on how to support students’ navigation through mis/disinformation—namely, slow down, be cautious of social media, and focus on issues with a local impact.

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