Wednesday 10 September 2014

Reflections on the distribution of research into digital piracy, by academic discipline

Over the last few months, I have been posting lists of prominent scholars engaged in research into digital piracy. They have been the most viewed (by a mile) entries on the blog to date, which is encouraging news to me that blog readers are up for the challenge of doing their own research. This makes me happy.

I feel, given the interest to date, I should elaborate on some points raised and answer some questions I have been receiving via email.

Firstly, the list of names is non-comprehensive. These are names that have either a) appeared regularly during my literature searches over the last 4/5 years or have b) contributed, in my opinion, particularly important additions to the research to date. The list has not been collated in a particularly systematic way such as using h-indexes (a measure of research productivity and impact).

Secondly, and following on from the first point, the list is likely skewed with my own reading being tailored to my own research interests (digital piracy is a very broad area of research). This is most notable with just one Lawyer present in my list of around 30 scholars. There are plenty of research articles exploring legal sides of digital piracy, but I just haven't read most of them! They are out there, I assure you.

Thirdly, I have NOT been paid to promote anyone's research. I don't even know where to begin pointing out holes with that speculation. I have only ever been in the same room as a few of these individuals; I don't know any of them. The lists were simply intended to give readers a heads up on some key search terms to guide them to good reading materials on digital piracy research, as is the ultimate aim of this blog overall. To date I have received zero pounds and zero pence to maintain this blog - it's an entirely voluntary pursuit.

I would also like to take this opportunity to announce I will be publishing a similar series in 2015 mapping out key journals for you to sift through on your own time. It's an encouraging sign to see the readership of the blog grow over 2014 which is perhaps due to my efforts to post more and actually try and use Twitter effectively. There is only one of me though, and other life events and workloads mean I will probably have to rely on more of these sorts of posts where I direct you elsewhere. I get the vibe from the recent series however that this will work out just fine. Fully committed to the blog until at least next April.

Thanks for the support, and happy reading.

Tweets @musicpiracyblog

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