The Open Commons of Phenomenology (OPHEN) is an international project that aims to provide open access to the entire corpus of phenomenology, and to build a shared, collaborative digital working environment for the phenomenological researchers around the world. To achieve this aim, OPHEN runs a web platform (ophen.org) that offers a growing number of resources and services to its research community and to the wider public. The present guide provides an overview of these resources and services, as well as information on how to best use them.
Resources
The OPHEN repository is a large bio-bibliographical database of publications (monographs, book chapters, journals, articles, etc.) and of authors relevant to phenomenology. It includes both classics (Husserl, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, etc.) and living authors (de Monticelli, Marion, Waldenfels, etc) and will eventually hold all publications in phenomenology, as many as possible with full text in PDF, HTML and XML formats. The OPHEN repository has two main uses: search & discovery on the one hand, publishing & archiving on the other. In other words, it can be used both to find relevant literature and to upload and share your own work.
Calendar
The OPHEN calendar is an up-to-date, geographically structued list of all events (conferences, workshops, seminars, summer schools) relevant to phenomenology. It provides an overview both of future events and open call for papers and an archival record of historical events. Just as the repository, the calendar can be used both to browse and find interesting events or to publish and share your own.
Journals, Societies, Projects, Blogs
The Open Commons of Phenomenology funds and supports 4 journals: Acta Structuralica, Linguistique de l'écrit, Metodo, Phenomenological Reviews. In addition, the OPHEN platfom hosts the official websites of a number of societies (NASEP, CEESP), research projects (e.g. Kriegsbriefe, The Great War and Philosophy, Scuola di Milano), as well as institutional blogs (Centre d'études phénoménologiques, Center for Subjectivity Research, et al., etc.)
Newsletter
Running as an independent service since 2002, the Newsletter of Phenomenology is the most important tool within the phenomenological community to disseminate the most up-to-date information (CFPs, Events, Books, Journal Issues). The Newsletter of Phenomenology now runs through OPHEN and uses all the data submitted to the OPHEN database (repository and calendar). It thus allows you to archive your events and publications and share them all in one easy step.
Services
Open Access Publishing
The Open Commons supports the publication of open access journals and book series. It provides technical support (TEI-XML workflow, Reference management) and hosting, and can under certain conditions provide financial support through its funding scheme. Ownership and copyright of each journal remains with the editorial board.
Website Hosting (Events, Projects, Societies)
The OPHEN platform can be used to host individual websites for events, projects, societies or even personal pages (upcoming feature). Examples are provided under the "Resources" tab. All websites are hosted for free and can access the power of the OPHEN database and tools, allowing for the publication of professional and interactive pages that meet international standards of scholarly communication and research data management.
Research Data Management
The OPHEN platform is designed and can be used as a research data management infrastructure. Data points include publications, people, events, institutions, publishers, places (GeoName), as well as controlled keyword vocabularies. Research Data Management can be linked to the hosting of an event-, project-, or society-website. The Open Commons can also function as an official technical partner covering the Data Management Plan of your grant applications.