The following guidelines are based on several core principles that we as participants of the COST Action Distant Reading for European Literary History (CA16204) collectively endorse: We welcome and promote usage of Action output, such as ELTeC, in research; we encourage international and interdisciplinary collaboration; we support Open Science. 

Based on these principles, whenever Action participants plan, conduct or publish research that uses ELTeC or another resource produced by the Action, or when Action participants learn about such research being planned, conducted or published by people outside the Action, there are a few things we should do and keep in mind:

  1. It is neither necessary nor possible for the Core Group to judge the quality or feasibility of such research. – However, in specific cases, the Core Group can decide to encourage researchers to reflect on technical and/or ethical risks and limitations of their research and frame their research appropriately in their publications. Such encouragement should be motivated by a desire to safeguard the good reputation of the Action.
  2. The Action members should be informed about such research. – If it is research conducted by Action members, they should send a message to the MC list, in order to inform the Action members and, if appropriate, invite them to get involved. If it is research conducted outside the Action, anyone learning about the research should inform the Core Group, who will then make sure it is listed in the impact section of the Action website.
  3. Whenever possible, resources derived from Action output such as ELTeC and used in research should be made publicly available with an appropriate open licence. – Such resources can for example be new versions of ELTeC, additional annotation layers for ELTeC, or language models built using ELTeC. If such a derived resource has been created by several Action members collaboratively, or has been used in research conducted by several Action members collaboratively, they are welcome (but not obligated) to publish the resource in a suitable repository or other location connected to the Action (as the only publication channel or in addition to publication elsewhere), and the resource can be considered Action output. If a derived resource has been created within a single Action participant’s research and has not been used in research conducted by several Action members collaboratively, or has been created by researchers who are not Action participants, then the resource cannot be published in a repository connected to the Action and should be listed on the page dedicated to the impact of our Action.
  4. Publications that have been authored by one or several Action participants and that are directly relevant to the objectives of our Action, as defined in the MoU, can be considered Action publications, unless their authors decide otherwise. We warmly encourage scholarly use of resources produced by the Action by persons who are not Action participants, including re-publication in line with the licensing conditions associated with those resources. Although such publications should not be listed as Action output, they should be listed on the page dedicated to the impact of our Action.

(The Guidelines have been developed by the Core Group of the COST Action Distant Reading for European Literary History in February-March 2021. Any contentious matters should be brought to the attention of the Core Group, who will coordinate further steps.)