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Digital Humanities: Research hubs & portals

An introduction to digital humanities

What are research hubs and portals?

Research hubs are typically online locations where a range of options, resources and activities are launched in a particular field or area of interest. They are sometimes called "one-stop-shops".

Research portals are entry points or a gateways to a multitude of other locations or resources.

Purposes of research hubs and portals

  • Find relevant data and research
  • Join research communities and find collaborators
  • Work collaboratively in the online space
  • Keep up to date with research trends
  • Make data and research available in the most effective way

Tools and techniques applied in relation to research hubs and portals

Tools:

  • Media Wiki
    • Media Wiki is a free, open source software for making Wiki pages.
    • Used by Distributed Proofreaders, who do crowdsourced transcription and proofreading.
    • Used by Discourse DB, which uses wiki technology to create a database of the opinions of the world's journalists and commentators about ongoing political events and issues.
  • WordPress
    • Wordpress is a content management system that enables users to create blogs and webpages. There is a free and open source version of this platform.
    • Used by researcher Tim Sherratt for his research blog.

Examples of research hubs and portals

  • PARTHENOS Hub
    • An open accessible publication and interaction platform for the humanities research communities, bringing together diverse sources of knowledge (e.g. articles, blog entries, etc.) and merging them into a coherent issue on one platform, resulting in a freely accessible, citable environment that enables discussion.
  • The Environment & Society Portal
    • A gateway to open access resources on the human-environment relationship.

Research centres/groups at the University of Sydney

Repository

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