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Advancing an inclusive Perspective
on Arts and Humanities scholarship
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First Newsletter
Introducing Perspecti & our pre-launch activities
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Welcome to our first Perspecti newsletter!
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With this first newsletter, we present an introduction to the Perspecti database, together with an overview of the Academic Board that advises its ongoing development. We outline the foundational principles guiding this work (bibliodiversity, multilingualism, and responsible research metrics) and articulate their relevance for fostering a more representative evidence base in the Arts and Humanities.
In addition, we present a brief reflection on two recent events in which Perspecti was discussed, we provide an initial preview of the interface currently under development, and warmly invite readers to engage with us as the project continues to evolve.
Enjoy exploring Perspecti with us! |
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Perspecti will be the first comprehensive research and citation database for Arts and Humanities (A&H) scholarship. The database will capture metadata related to scholarly works resulting from A&H research, including detailed and linked information about references used and citations received by these works.
With Perspecti, we intend to address existing shortcomings of scholarly metadata providers in A&H disciplines. The current biased coverage creates significant challenges for the A&H research ecosystem, affecting the discoverability, visibility, and recognition of the impact of research in the Arts and Humanities.
Perspecti aims to offer reliable, high quality and human-curated data perspectives for reserachers, librarians, institutions, governments, and funders. Perspecti will serve the A&H community and foster its bibliodiversity.
For more information about Perspeci (our mission, our approach, the timeline, etc.) please visit: https://perspecti.net |
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Introducing the Academic Board
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For the development of Perspecti, we carefully consider all possible uses of the database. For this reason, we established a partnership with the University of Antwerp to establish an international academic board, consisting of researchers from the Arts and Humanities, as well as the metascience community from around the world.
The main role of the academic board is to provide input regarding the needs of the academic community and to provide feedback on the development of Perspecti and its functionalities.
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“For many years, scholars have advocated for more comprehensive understanding of the humanities. With Perspecti, Brepols is taking the lead in developing an infrastructure that will facilitate deeper understanding of humanities scholarship.”
Tim Engels
President of the Academic Board
Universiteit Antwerpen, Belgium |
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Bibliodiversity in the Arts and Humanities
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The Arts and Humanities foster a wide range of communication practices, often expressed through diverse book-based publications (e.g., monographs, critical text editions, conference proceedings, collected essays, festschrifts, chapters, etc.). Consequently, a more inclusive approach is needed to enhance our understanding of the A&H landscape.
Multilingualism is also essential. Research in the A&H embraces a broad linguistic spectrum, including classical and minority languages. Perspecti aims to comprehensively capture this linguistic diversity to enable more meaningful discovery for the first time.
Importantly, in designing Perspecti, we adhere to the principles laid out in the Leiden Manifesto for Research Metrics (Leiden manifesto for research Metrics - Home). We strive to keep our interfaces and data collection simple and transparent, protect locally relevant research, account for field-specific publication and citation practices, and scrutinize numeric indicators to provide context and support informed interpretation.
Throughout the development of Perspecti, the principles of bibliodiversity, multilingualism, and the Leiden Manifesto serve as key design foundations. We remain in close consultation with the academic community and value the input of all relevant stakeholders.
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Presentation at Archaeologia Medieavalis 2026 (49th edition) in Brussels, Belgium
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At the 49th edition of Archaeologia Mediaevalis in Brussels on 25th of March, Chris VandenBorre (Publishing Manager and Joshua Eykens (Product Specialist for Perspecti) presented an overview of the system under development and shared first insights from the data collected so far.
During the session, we demonstrated how Perspecti allows us to uncover scholarly communication patterns that are often overlooked in mainstream research and citation databases.
By analysing both regional and international journals in archaeology, as well as their publication and citation behaviours, and contrasting the dominance of English with the continued relevance of local languages, Perspecti highlights the importance of taking bibliodiversity seriously. As discussed during the event, balanced coverage of archaeological research remains limited today, yet this is urgently needed.
Attendees discovered how Perspecti’s 360‑degree data approach reveals unique scholarly fingerprints across journal types, mapping references to a linguistically diverse and bibliodiverse knowledge base.
This session marks an important milestone in demonstrating how Perspecti can reshape our understanding of research in the Arts and Humanities.
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RESSH 2026
Research Evaluation in the Social Sciences and Humanities 2026 in Florence, Italy
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We attended the RESSH 2026 conference (Research Evaluation in the Social Sciences and Humanities), which took place from 22–24 April 2026 in Florence. The conference was organized by the European Network for Research Evaluation in the Social Sciences and Humanities (ENRESSH): (for more information see https://enressh.eu/).
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At the conference, we presented a poster showcasing the approach and core principles underpinning the design of Perspecti, alongside initial figures and a first preview of the user interface currently under development.
During the poster session, we engaged in several insightful discussions and received strong interest from a diverse range of stakeholders within the scholarly communication and research‑on‑research ecosystem. We look forward to continuing these conversations in the coming months. |
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The next stops for the Perspecti team will be:
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The user interface for the Perspecti database as well as other ways to access the underlying data are under active development. In 2027, a new open platform will give individual users the possibility to discover publication and citation information. More advanced features and institutional access will be available at a subscription.
Subscribers will have access to aggregated data (e.g. university profiles) and advanced features. |
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Since December 2025, Brepols Bilbliographies already include citation information sourced from Perspecti through a new citation plugin. This tool is available in the hitlist and on the record page, providing the total number of citations along with the bibliographical details of the citing publications.
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You can help us with the design of Perspecti! We are curious about your ideas and would like to hear from you. If you are interested in sharing a few minutes of your time, please feel free to reach out to us and schedule an appointment: info@perspecti.net
You can already interact with the data that is being collected for Perspecti through the citation plugin provided in the Brepols bibliographies. Login to https://www.brepolis.net and check if you have access to our bibliographies (also see the following webpage for more information about the plugin: Perspecti plugin - Perspecti).
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Subscribe and follow options for news related to Perspecti
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For those who are interested in the early developments and pre-launch activities related to Perspecti, we will provide bi-monthly updates.
The newsletters for 2026 will include news and insights related to the data underlying the Perspecti database, updates about events at which insights related to Perspecti will be shared, updates on the launch date, and industry insights. |
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Perspecti is a product of Brepols Publishers NV,
continuing our long tradition of innovation and bibliographic databases.
Brepols Publishers NV – Begijnhof 67 2300 Turnhout
VAT/BTW BE0463.139.762
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