Humanities e-Science: From Systematic Investigations to Institutional Infrastructures

In this paper we bring together the results of a number of humanities e-research projects at King's College London. This programme of work was not carried out in an ad hoc manner, but was built on a rigorous methodological foundation, firstly by ensuring that the work was thoroughly grounded in the practice of humanities researchers (including 'digitally-aware' humanists), and secondly by analysing these practices in terms of 'scholarly primitives', basic activities common to research across humanities disciplines. The projects were then undertaken to provide systems and services that support various of these primitives, with a view to developing a research infrastructure constructed from these components, which may be regarded as a 'production line' for humanities research, supporting research activities from the creation of primary sources in digital form through to the publication of research outputs for discussion and re-use.