The Journal of Open Humanities Data (JOHD) is pleased to announce a special collection on Benchmarking in Digital Humanities, edited by Dr Jenny C.Y. Kwok and Dr. Liam Jianliang Gao. This collection will explore the critical role of benchmarking in advancing humanities research, highlighting how the creation of shared evaluation data and systematic comparison of tools can drive progress. In the computational sciences, benchmarks and reproducible experiments are cornerstones of innovation – the same is increasingly true for the digital humanities. Replicability and reproducibility (R&R) are now recognized as vital for long-term scientific progress, and establishing benchmarking frameworks facilitates effective comparisons of methods and tools.
This special collection aims to bring together both theoretical perspectives and practical studies on benchmarking within the (digital) humanities. We encourage contributions that reflect on the concept, importance, and proposed frameworks of benchmarking in humanities research, as well as papers that provide hands-on examples, case studies, or resources. Submissions may address methodological questions (e.g. how to design fair benchmarks or interpret comparative results) or report on implemented benchmarks, tools, and data.