[Air-L] Call for Abstracts: Open Research Infrastructures and Resources for Communication and Media Studies

[Christian Strippel]

Dear all,

There is still some time to go, but I would like to already share the Call for Abstract for our Special Issue on "Open Research Infrastructures and Resources for Communication and Media Studies": https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/pages/view/nextissues#OpenResearch

Please share it widely with colleagues who might be interested. You can find all relevant info below.

Thank you!
Christian


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Title: Open Research Infrastructures and Resources for Communication and Media Studies 

Editor(s): Silke Fürst (University of Zurich), Johannes Breuer (GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences), Erik Koenen (University of Bremen), Dimitri Prandner (Johannes Kepler University of Linz), Christian Schwarzenegger (University of Bremen), and Christian Strippel (Weizenbaum Institute)

Submission of Abstracts: 1-15 September 2025
Submission of Full Papers: 15-31 January 2026
Publication of the Issue: July/December 2026

Information: Many scholars and initiatives in communication and media research have called for a “cultural shift” in our discipline toward more open, reproducible, and replicable research practices and better access to infrastructures and shared research resources (e.g., Bowman & Spence, 2020 <https://doi.org/10.1080/10510974.2020.1799488>; Dienlin et al., 2021 <https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqz052>; Haim & Puschmann, 2023 <https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2023.2174894>). However, when we look at the main forums in our field, we still see a lack of opportunities to share information on and experiences with such infrastructures and resources. Typically, this information is limited to brief references in articles, documentation scattered across the web, and informal exchanges among colleagues. A growing, but still limited number of journals have started to provide dedicated space for in-depth presentations or discussions of tools, datasets, or other resources (e.g., Araujo et al., 2022 <https://doi.org/10.5117/ccr2022.2.001.arau>; Haim et al., 2023 <https://doi.org/10.5771/1615-634X-2023-1-2-130>; Musi et al., 2024 <https://doi.org/10.24434/j.scoms.2024.01.4270>; Ohme, 2023 <https://journals.sagepub.com/pb-assets/cmscontent/mmc/Research%20Software%20Reviews%20in%20Mobile%20Media_final-1646042282.pdf>; Schoch & Chan, 2023 <https://doi.org/10.1177/20501579231176678>; Shaw et al., 2021 <https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqab033>; Strippel et al., 2023 <https://doi.org/10.1007/s11616-023-00806-7>).

This thematic issue aims to contribute to these efforts by providing a forum for debate and exchange on open research infrastructures for communication and media research, with a focus on non-commercial resources following open science principles. Hence, we particularly welcome submissions which:

Present, compare, or evaluate datasets, databases, and archives that provide research material and instruments for data analysis or data collection in the field of communication and media research;
Present, compare, or evaluate research software, models (e.g., classifiers), training data, dictionaries, or other resources, taking into account the specific requirements in the field of communication and media research;
Assess the extent to which open research infrastructures and resources are created and (re)used in communication and media research, discuss the factors that enable or constrain their adoption, and provide suggestions for ways forward;
Discuss the implications of creating, maintaining, and using reusable research data, archives, and tools for both quantitative and qualitative research practices in communication and media studies with regard to research inequalities between the Global North and the Global South or the English language hegemony (e.g., Dutta et al., 2021 <https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqab027>; Humphreys et al., 2021 <https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqab026>).

Instructions for Authors: Authors interested in submitting a paper for this issue are asked to consult the journal's instructions for authors and submit their abstracts (maximum of 250 words, with a tentative title) through the abstracts system (here <https://www.cogitatiopress.com/abstracts>). When submitting their abstracts, authors are also asked to confirm that they are aware that Media and Communication is an open access journal with a publishing fee if the article is accepted for publication after peer-review (corresponding authors affiliated with our institutional members do not incur this fee).

Open Access: Readers across the globe will be able to access, share, and download this issue entirely for free. Corresponding authors affiliated with any of our institutional members <https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/pages/view/institutionalmembers> (over 90 institutions worldwide) publish free of charge. Otherwise, an article processing fee will be charged to the authors to cover editorial costs. We defend that authors should not have to personally pay this fee and encourage them to check with their institutions if funds are available to cover open access publication costs. Further information about the journal's open access charges can be found here <https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/about/editorialPolicies#publicationFees>.


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Weizenbaum Institute, Berlin (Germany)
Group Lead "Weizenbaum Panel" and "MethodsLab"
https://www.weizenbaum-institut.de/en/portrait/p/christian-strippel/
https://panel.weizenbaum-institut.de/en/
https://methodslab.weizenbaum-institut.de/


Recent Publications:

– Data, archives, and tools: Introducing new publication formats on infrastructures and resources <https://doi.org/10.1007/s11616-023-00806-7>
– Challenges and Perspectives of Hate Speech Research <https://www.digitalcommunicationresearch.de/v12/>
– Weizenbaum Report 2023: Political Participation in Germany <https://www.ssoar.info/ssoar/bitstream/handle/document/88955/ssoar-2023-heger_et_al-Weizenbaum_Report_2023_Political_Participation.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y&lnkname=ssoar-2023-heger_et_al-Weizenbaum_Report_2023_Political_Participation.pdf>
– Insults, criminalization, and calls for violence: Forms of hate speech and offensive language <https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-92103-3_6>
– “The Boundaries are Blurry…”: How Comment Moderators in Germany See and Respond to Hate Comments <https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1461670X.2021.2017793>
– From Insult to Hate Speech: Mapping Offensive Language in German User Comments on Immigration <https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/3399>