Scholarly editions play an important role in the humanities, but their actual impact on specific academic disciplines as well as on society as a whole is largely unknown. This is at least partly due to methodological problems. Common bibliometrical indicators (such as the notorious Journal Impact Factor or the h-index) do not provide any insight into the quality of an edition’s reception or its relevance for a specific community. While it is easy to measure the traffic on the web portal of a digital edition, interpreting this data remains a real challenge. Qualitative studies (e.g. based on usability tests) have so far been limited to individual projects. Yet more comprehensive and more precise methods of measuring the impact of scholarly editions are urgently needed in order to shape future projects.

Measuring the impact of scholarly editions can not only serve to justify future funding in increasingly utilitarian research environments, but is also essential for studying the social, political, and cultural function(s) of scholarly editions, which is of growing interest, for instance, in disciplines such as history, cultural sciences, literary sciences, musicology, art history, and regional sciences. Recent years have seen a growing number of contributions dealing with the role of archives, editions, and text corpora especially in the context of the construction and standardisation of national languages, of nation building, of colonialism and de-colonisation, as well as for the role for the shared cultural and communicative memories both of distinct communities and of humankind as a whole.

Editors increasingly strive to reach larger, more diverse and inclusive audiences, as they face far- reaching practical and ethical questions: how can we develop and evaluate strategies to improve the accessibility and increase the reach of scholarly editions in a globalised academic context? To improve international exchange and facilitate mutual learning in the scholarly community on these topics, the Forum Editorik Göttingen will host its first international symposium (hybrid) from June 13 to 15, 2024.

We invite researchers to submit their abstracts (up to 500 words) for a 30-min contribution (online or in person) related to the following areas of interest:

- Impact measurement of scholarly editions on a global scale (for example on suitable bibliometrical, social scientific, computer scientific methods)

- Qualitative and/or exemplary studies on the usability of scholarly editions and their impact on cultures and societies worldwide (political, historical, philological, linguistic, literary etc.)

- Measures to improve the impact and general accessibility of scholarly editions, especially through university teaching, and with a broader outlook on the global community

Please send your abstracts of up to 500 words as a PDF to editorik@sub.uni-goettingen.de with symposium24 as reference line until January 15th, 2024 (11:59 p.m.CET). Please do also indicate if you plan to attend the symposium in person or online. We will inform you whether your submission has been accepted until March 1, 2024. The Forum Editorik will cover travel and lodging costs (100 € per night, up to three nights; train tickets 2nd class/ flight tickets economy class) for all accepted speakers.