Lokala omförhandlanden av öppenhets- respektive utvärderingstrenden i vetenskaplig publicering : en lingvistisk forskargrupps navigering i ett föränderligt publiceringslandskap

Sammanfattning: Two major trends in scholarly publishing to have emerged in recent years are the increased demands on the availability of scientific publications (Open Access) and the evaluation of scholarly publishing by quantitative measures. On the one hand, scholars today have to conform to demands from funding agencies as well as other institutions to publish their findings Open Access. On the other hand, the current research environment is marked by competitiveness and an ever-increasing emphasis on the dissemination of findings in high impact factors channels. Research has shown that publishing practices within the humanities tend to counteract the implementation of the trends mentioned above. Even so, studies have shown that the dissemination of research in the humanities in fact includes a broad spectrum of practices, calling for a more detailed understanding of publishing in specific disciplines and research fields. Linguistics as a field of research serves as an example of this diversity, displaying publishing patterns that deviate from those typically associated with the humanities. This study aims to investigate the shaping of publishing practices within the field of linguistics in regards to the two aforementioned trends. The study is informed by an actor-network-theoretical approach. In total, 10 qualitative interviews were conducted with 13 informants. The informants included were interviewed in the capacity of members of a linguistic research group at a Swedish university (6), representatives of the research information system (3), library (2), department management (1) and IT unit (1). Apart from the interviews, a complementary documentary analysis was conducted in which organizational documents, as well as documents relating to research policy at a national and institutional level, were analyzed. Findings indicate that publishing practices among the members of the linguistic research group predominantly are shaped and upheld with regards to the informal values of specialized scholarly communities. The primary external source of influence on the researchers’ publishing practices, in regards to two trends, is identified as being funding sources whose policies dictate publishing in Open Access journals. Although researchers display an awareness of metrics in the context of research assessment, only a partial uptake of bibliometric indicators is shown in their practices. The thesis finds that general trends in scholarly publishing are subject to renegotiation by researchers in relation to values and practices internal to their scholarly communities. As for the endurance of these values and practices, it is argued that they – rather than being definite or fixed – are maintained through an ongoing process which involves a wide range of stakeholders.