Article published in OLH/Birkbeck Journal, 19: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Nineteenth Century, wins prestigious Victorian studies prize

We are delighted to announce that Professor Jason Camlot has won the prestigious Donald Gray Prize for best Victorian Studies essay from the North American Victorian Studies Association (NAVSA) for his article published in 19: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Nineteenth Century (issue 21).

The article ‘Historicist Audio Forensics: The Archive of Voices as Repository of Material and Conceptual Artefacts’ appeared in the anniversary issue of 19, entitled ‘The Nineteenth-Century Digital Archive’, edited by Dr Luisa Calè and Dr Ana Parejo Vadillo, Co-Directors of the Birkbeck Centre for Nineteenth-Century Studies. It considers the status of audio artefacts that comprise the historical archive of voices within the context of digital environments.

NAVSA's annual Donald Gray Prize for best essay published in the field of Victorian Studies is named after Donald J. Gray, Culbertson Professor Emeritus in the English Department of Indiana University.

Dr Calé and Dr Parejo Vadillo write:

We are thrilled that Professor Camlot has been awarded this prestigious prize. The aim of our issue was to show how digital environments produce innovative research in nineteenth-century studies.  Our born-digital journal offered an ideal environment to host the audio and visual evidence gathered by Professor Camlot in his archaeology of sound. Not many journals can do what 19 does. We exploited the medium to spring forth our vision of the field for the twenty-first century.

Dr Carolyn Burdett is 19’s editor, and writes:

Congratulations to Professor Jason Camlot on being awarded the Donald Gray prize for his fascinating and innovative essay. 19 is proud to publish it, especially in its tenth anniversary issue. Dedicated to the nineteenth-century digital archive, it celebrates 19’s born-digital status and its exciting possibilities for twenty-first century scholarship in our field.

Professor Camlot, the author of the piece, said:

Part of the congratulations must certainly come back to 19 and its vision as a media-friendly, open-access journal as I could not have published this article in this particular way without 19 as a platform for scholarly publication.

Previous winning entries have appeared in PMLA, Victorian Studies, NOVEL and Representations. Of those journals in which these winning articles have appeared, 19 is the only one that is open access and therefore free to read. Issue 19 (2014) of was also awarded an honourable mention for the Donald Gray Prize.

19 is proudly part of The Open Library of Humanities, an academic-led, gold open-access publisher with no author-facing charges. With initial funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the platform covers its costs by payments from an international library consortium, rather than any kind of author fee.

Professor Martin Paul Eve, a founder and CEO of the Open Library of Humanities, said:

We are thrilled that Professor Camlot's article has been awarded the Donald Gray Prize by NAVSA. There has been much hand-wringing over the years by opponents over the supposed problems of quality in open-access publishing. This award is clear evidence to the contrary. Of course, we are just the publisher, facilitating the dissemination of the hours upon hours of work by authors, such as Professor Camlot, and the editorial team at 19. However, we are nonetheless thrilled to have been able to ensure that anyone is able to read this fine work, regardless of whether they can pay.

Libraries outside the US, UK, EU or Canada interested in joining the OLH Library Partnership Subsidy model should contact Professor Martin Paul Eve: martin.eve@openlibhums.org. UK-based libraries can join through Jisc Collections at http://www.jisc-collections.ac.uk/Catalogue/Overview/Index/2120. US-based libraries can join through LYRASIS at https://lyrasis.openlibhums.org. European libraries can sign up at http://lps.openlibhums.org.