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Humanities Commons

Michigan State University
United States
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About

Launched: 2016
Record Updated: Apr 19, 2024
Informal scholarly communications
Repository service
Research profiling system
The Commons is a nonprofit network that enables scholars, researchers, practitioners, teachers, and students to create a professional profile, discuss common interests, develop new publications, and share their work. The Commons network is open to anyone, regardless of field, language, institutional affiliation, or form of employment. Full-featured accounts are and will remain free for individual users; the network is sustained by the financial contributions of participating organizations.

Mission

We cultivate open spaces for diverse communities to connect, create, share, and experiment. Together we work to transform global knowledge systems.

Key Achievements

  • In November 2020, the fiscal sponsorship and hosting of Humanities Commons moved to Michigan State University, where the network is developed and maintained by members of the MESH Research team. Additionally, MSU became the first institutional member to join the network in 2020, launching MSU Commons to serve its campus community.
  • In early 2023, the Commons welcomed HASTAC, often described as "the world's first and oldest academic social network," as a participating organization, importing 18,000 existing user accounts and 10 years of data to hastac.hcommons.org.
  • Also in early 2023, the Commons began a multi-year NSF-funded collaboration with a group of science education researchers at MSU, which will lead to the launch of STEM Ed+ Commons. This FAIR/CARE open science research coordination network will bring together education researchers from across STEM fields and around the world to share data, collaborate on research projects, and develop common protocols and standards to advance their fields.

    • Technical Attributes

    Open Code Repository

    Implemented
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    Maintenance Status

    Actively maintained

    Technical Documentation

    Implemented
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    Open Product Roadmap

    Implemented
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    Open API

    In Progress

    Content Licensing

    Users are able to apply the Creative Commons license of their choice to content they contribute. In the absence of an active license selection, the system defaults to CC BY.

    Hosting Options & Service Providers

    Hosting Strategy

    Not applicable

    Community Engagement

    Code of Conduct

    Implemented
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    Community Engagement

    Implemented

    Organizational Commitment to Community Engagement

  • Two dedicated staff members -- a community development manager and a user engagement specialist
  • A regular program of webinars, trainings, and other events
  • Regular blog posts from the team
  • A monthly newsletter with updates

    • Engagement with Values Frameworks

    We are engaging with both POSI and FOREST, though we have not formally signed on as yet.

    Policies & Governance

    Governance Summary

    Humanities Commons employs a shared governance model with participation by three interrelated advisory groups: a Participating Organization Council, a Technical Advisory Group, and a User Advisory Group.

    Policies

    Bylaws

    Implemented
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    Commitment to Equity & Inclusion

    Implemented
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    Privacy Policy

    Implemented
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    Web Accessibility Statement

    In Progress

    Governance Activities

    Implemented
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    Governance Structure & Processes

    Implemented
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    Transparent Pricing and Cost Expectations

    Implemented
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    Additional Information

    Organizational History

    The Commons launched in December 2016 as a pilot project of the office of scholarly communication at the Modern Language Association. Its development was made possible by a generous grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the pilot was designed to explore whether four partner societies — the MLA; the Association for Jewish Studies; the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies; and the College Art Association — could benefit from shared infrastructure for member-to-member communication, collaboration, and public engagement. Since that pilot, additional organizations have joined the network, including the Association of University Presses and the Society of Architectural Historians.

    In November 2020, the fiscal sponsorship and hosting of Humanities Commons moved to Michigan State University, where the network is developed and maintained by members of the MESH Research team. Additionally, MSU became the first institutional member to join the network in 2020, launching MSU Commons to serve its campus community.

    Organizational Structure

    Business or Ownership Model

    Fiscal sponsorship (academic institution)

    Full-time Staff

    5.0

    Funding

    Primary Funding Source

    Contributions

    Funding Needs

    While we have been very successful at obtaining generous support from the NSF, the NEH, and the Mellon Foundation for building and advancing the network's functionality, we are now in rather desperate need of a full-time help desk. In the absence of front-line user support, our community team's focus is continually diverted from building our membership and facilitating engagement in order to handle basic customer support requests. With the addition of a full-time help desk professional, we will be able to focus on ensuring that community growth is sustainable. Funding this position for three years will require a $300,000 investment.
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