[Lingtyp] (CFP) Language Documentation Collections: Assessment and Recognition

[Richard T Griscom]

Dear all,

Collections of data produced by practitioners of language documentation are
useful resources for language typologists and theorists who benefit from
direct access to linguistic data, but curators of such collections struggle
to receive recognition for their contributions. Please find the information
below about an upcoming special collection on this very topic, as well as
the full call for papers here: https://l.linklyhq.com/l/NW3J

Best,
Richard T. Griscom
Postdoctoral Researcher
Leiden University Centre for Linguistics


Title

Language Documentation Collections: Assessment and Recognition

Description

In reaction to the rapid decline in linguistic diversity around the world,
there has been a broad call for the increased allocation of resources and
efforts to support the documentation of endangered languages and linguistic
practices, and furthermore the active participation of speech communities
in the documentation process (Himmelmann, 1998; Rice, 2011). This is
reflected in the emergence of journals, conferences and workshops, as well
as funding agencies and programs dedicated to supporting the discipline of
language documentation.

Despite these encouraging developments, the lack of “guidelines and metrics
for evaluating data creation, curation, sharing, and re-use” (Berez-Kroeker
et al., 2018) poses a significant challenge for practitioners of language
documentation, who often struggle to earn recognition from the academic
community for the documentary records that they produce (Riesberg, 2018),
reflecting a discipline-specific manifestation of broader lack of
recognition of the merit of open scholarship for review and hiring (Alperin
et al. 2019). There is an expressed need specifically for peer-review of
documentary outputs, but no established standards for doing so (Thieberger
et al., 2016; LSA Executive Committee, 2018; Woodbury, 2014; Haspelmath and
Michaelis, 2014).

The aim of this Special Collection of the Journal of Open Humanities Data
(JOHD) is to develop a detailed outline of what an effective peer-review
process for documentary materials might look like, and how such a system
would foster better recognition for these materials in academic evaluation
systems such as in hiring, promotion, and tenure. We welcome contributions
that explore assessment criteria and procedures, as well as peer-authored
reviews and curator-authored case studies of documentary materials.

Submissions on the following topics and related areas are encouraged:

   -

   Articles discussing models of assessment for:


   -

   Applications of levels of access (e.g. Open Access, restricted access,
   sensitive materials, community access) and associated intellectual property
   information and reusability
   -

   Data organization, quality of collection description, and artifact
   metadata
   -

   Quantity, quality, and modality of the artifacts included in the
   collection
   -

   File formats and software dependencies
   -

   Comprehensiveness of the documentary record (e.g. diversity of speakers,
   speech genres, and speaker interactivity)
   -

   Provenance of the collection, lifecycle and evolution of the data,
   version control and history, long-term preservation.
   -

   Capacity for reuse of language documentation data for cross-disciplinary
   endeavors


   -

   Articles discussing assessment procedures and recognition, such as:


   -

   Contextual assessment which takes social, technological, and linguistic
   factors into account
   -

   The roles of individual reviewers and/or authoritative bodies in
   conducting assessment and promoting recognition and reuse of materials
   -

   Assessment by community members and other non-academic peers
   -

   Internal assessment procedures in use by language archives
   -

   Assessment at multiple developmental stages of the documentary record
   -

   Labor issues and reward systems for performing assessments
   -

   The role of assessment in improving recognition of documentary materials
   or contributing to the further development of the materials (i.e. users as
   curators)
   -

   Variation in regional or national assessment standards


   -

   Peer-authored reviews or curator-authored case studies of documentary
   materials that illustrate or engage with one or more of the above points.

Submission Instructions
All submissions should be 3,000-6,000 words in length (references not
included), and will be considered full length research papers in the JOHD
submission system. The deadline for submissions to this special collection
is July 1st, 2021. Manuscripts will be sent for single-blind peer review
after editorial consideration, and accepted papers will be published online
in the journal’s special collection. Please follow the submission guidelines
<https://openhumanitiesdata.metajnl.com/about/submissions/> to submit your
manuscript and please indicate that you are submitting to the special
collection on Language Documentation in your cover letter.
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