Open Humanities Manifesto – an advocacy case for humanities in the Open Science era

Open Humanities Manifesto – an advocacy case for humanities in the Open Science era Magdalena Wnuk1[0000-0003-4129-6664], Marta Świetlik1[0000-0003-3218-4599], Mateusz Franczak1[0000-0002-0416-2491], Gabriela Manista1[0000-0002-1012-3958], Maciej Maryl1[0000-0002-2639-041X], Piotr Wciślik1[0000-0003-0671-3565] and Tomasz Umerle1[0000-0002-7335-0568] 1 Institute of Literary Research Polish Academy of Sciences, ul. Nowy Świat 72, 00-330 Warszawa, Poland Abstract. This poster will present the Open Humanities Manifesto as the initial salvo of a bold advocacy project geared towards making open humanities more sustainable. It also aims to discuss the need to put more effort into practising advocacy by researchers, science managers, editors, and librarians, and argue for scaling up the OHM as an advocacy tool in the international context. By contributing to the conversation on advancing research assessment in the spirit of open science, the poster closely aligns with the goals of the GraspOS 2025 conference. Conference Themes: Open Infrastructures for Responsible Research Assessment, Recognition of Contributions to Open Science Keywords: Research Assessment Reform, Advocacy, Open Science 1 Main Contribution “The humanities are at the forefront of open science. The free flow of thought and ideas is at its core and should be the default way to share knowledge.” – the creators of the Open Humanities Manifesto (OHM, see the original in Polish here [1]) wrote in the summer of 2024. The document, created in collaboration with a diverse group of stakeholders in the field of the humanities in Poland – researchers, librarians, and publishers – had one specific goal: to draw the public and policy attention to the needs of that field in the era of digital and open practices. Among the over 200 signatories of the Manifesto are researchers at various career stages, publishers, editors, librarians, and representatives of the cultural sector, as well as institutions: RPOs, NGOs, learned societies, and university departments. The OHM draws attention to the ongoing evolution of scholarly communication practices, driven by digital scholarship and open science, which are becoming the default approaches to research and steering the field's development (see, for example, the Vienna Digital Humanism Manifesto [2]). These approaches yield many innovations across the entire spectrum of scholarly activities, from research design (open methods), through data capture (FAIR and open data), to dissemination of 2 M. Wnuk, M. Świetlik, M. Franczak, G. Manista, M. Maryl, P. Wciślik, and T. Umerle results (open access). Yet, such practices are not adequately recognised in research assessment. In response, OHM, echoing landmark initiatives such as Plan S [3], CoARA [4], DORA [5], and the Helsinki Initiative on Multilingualism [6], introduces four core postulates to set an agenda for research assessment reform in Poland: 1. The evaluation system should acknowledge and support the practices of open science. 2. The evaluation of achievements should consider the diversity of research outputs specific to the humanities. 3. Open publishing models should be supported and sustained. 4. The development and internationalisation of the humanities require strengthening the national infrastructure of open science. The poster will present OHM as the initial phase of a strategic advocacy project aimed at strengthening the sustainability of open humanities. It situates the manifesto within the broader landscape of international initiatives, including the work of OPERAS, and national open science policies. By reflecting on these examples, the poster highlights how advocacy tools like OHM can be adapted to diverse institutional contexts—from research-performing organisations and university libraries to cultural heritage institutions—fostering dialogue and knowledge exchange across the sector. Ultimately, the OHM serves as both a practical advocacy instrument and a conceptual framework for advancing inclusive, context-sensitive, and digitally enabled research assessment. By scaling such initiatives internationally and fostering synergies with ongoing Open Science reforms, OHM contributes to shaping sustainable, open, and innovative practices within the humanities. Acknowledgments. This work was co-funded by the state budget under the Minister of Education and Science’s program Science for Society (project no. NdS/551343/2022/2022; funding: PLN 808,542.00) and by the Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange under the Strategic Partnership Programme (Grant no. BNI/PST/2023/1/00165/U/00001). The views and opinions expressed in this poster, including the framing and interpretation of the Open Humanities Manifesto, are those of the author only and do not necessarily reflect the positions of the funding bodies. Disclosure of Interests. The authors have no competing interests to declare that are relevant to the content of this article. References 1. Manifest Otwartej Humanistyki, https://operas.pl/manifest-otwartej-humanistyki/, last accessed 2025/09/27 2. DIGHUM, Vienna Manifesto on Digital Humanism, https://caiml.org/dighum/ dighum-manifesto/, last accessed 2025/09/27 3. ‘Plan S’ and ‘cOAlition S’, Accelerating the transition to full and immediate Open Access to scientific publications, https://www.coalition-s.org/, last accessed 2025/09/27 4. CoARA – Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment, https://coara.eu/, last accessed 2025/09/27 Open Humanities Manifesto 3 5. San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment, https://sfdora.org/read/, last accessed 2025/09/27 6. Helsinki Initiative on Multilingualism in Scholarly Communication, https://www.helsinki-initiative.org/, last accessed 2025/09/27