Information School News

Writer, researcher and Information School PhD student Phoenix C S Andrews has recently signed a book deal with Atlantic Books, who will release Andrews’ book I Heart Politics: Why Fandom Explains What’s Really Going On in 2022. "From Brexit rallies to the Capitol Hill Riot and QAnon to Extinction Rebellion, I Heart Politics argues that to understand what’s really happening behind the headlines we need to think about one overlooked phenomenon: fandom”, the synopsis reads. Whilst this is an area not explicitly related to Phoenix’s PhD study, it’s something that they have been interested in and writing about for some time. Fandoms and politics may not seem obviously linked at first, but at their core, fandoms are about the shared emotional attachments that people have to certain ideas, people or media. For many, this can certainly extend to individual politicians, political parties, campaigns or even politics as a whole, whether or not the fans themselves realise it. “Lots of peopl...

Book on Social Media Research Ethics contracted with SAGE Dr Paul Reilly Doing Ethical Social Media Research, contracted with SAGE, due 2022. Yesterday I received the contract for my next book. ‘Doing Ethical Social Media Research’ will be published by SAGE in 2022. This book will explore the foundations of ethical decision-making, the perspectives of researchers on how to conduct ethical social media research, and how to address these issues when researching high-risk contexts and contentious issues. The book will be a hybrid research methods text aimed at students, researchers and anybody with an interest in social media research. It will include summaries of key issues and exercises for those wanting to learn more about digital research ethics. Many thanks to Michael Ainsley at SAGE for all his help in getting this contract over the line, and for the thoughtful and generous feedback of all the reviewers. I look forward to working on this project with Michael and the team in 2021. I ...

New Book: Open Access in Theory and Practice Professor Stephen Pinfield A new book, By Stephen Pinfield, Simon Wakeling, David Bawden and Lyn Robinson has been published today in hardback and Open Access form.  Professor Stephen Pinfield worked with alum, and former member of staff, Simon Wakeling and colleagues from City, University of London.  Open Access in Theory and Practice investigates the theory-practice relationship in the domain of open access publication and dissemination of research outputs. Drawing on detailed analysis of the literature and current practice in OA, as well as data collected in detailed interviews with practitioners, policymakers, and researchers, the book discusses what constitutes ‘theory’, and how the role of theory is perceived by both theorists and practitioners. Exploring the ways theory and practice have interacted in the development of OA, the authors discuss what this reveals about the nature of the OA phenomenon itself and the theory-...

Andrew Cox and a colleague at Sheffield Hallam have just had a book published by Facet publishing. This book is for librarians and other support professionals who are interested in learning more about RDM and developing Research Data Services in their own institution. It will also be of value to students on librarianship, archives, and information management courses studying topics such as RDM, digital curation, data literacies and open science. Find out more and buy the book here.