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Three focused discussions were held with art history scholars concerning theirpublishing experiences and thoseof their colleagues and advisees. The first group was comprised of younger scholars (who had received their Ph.D.s within the past 10years), the second with mid-career and senior scholars, and the third with chairs of graduate art history departments in thenortheastern United States. The first two of these discussions were formally-designed focus groups devoted to exploring the topic ofthe present study at some length. The chairs’discussion was a shorter, less-structured session that was part of a larger meetingwith additional agenda items. All three discussions were held in New York City.

In the two formally-designed focus groups, efforts were made to maximize the diversity of perspectivesrepresented within each group, across the following dimensions: race, age, sex, year Ph.D. received, field of specialization,tenure status, number of books published, and institutional affiliation. For budgetary reasons, participants were recruitedfrom academic institutions in the northeastern United States, so that the costs associated with airline flights and overnight hotelstays could be avoided. Since it was not possible to conduct additional focus groups with participants from other parts of thecountry, we cannot say for sure whether the perspectives expressed in these focus groups are representative of the sorts of concernsart historians elsewhere in the United States might have. Scholars from the following institutions participated in the focus groups:Brown University, City University of New York, Columbia University, Harvard University, New York University, Rutgers University, SarahLawrence College, State University of New York (Stony Brook), University of Delaware, and University of Pennsylvania.

Brief questionnaires were sent in advance to the participants in the two formally-designed focus groups. CV’s were also obtained from each of the participants in advance of thesessions. A semi-structured discussion guide was developed for each group. (Copies of the questionnaires and the discussion guides areincluded in this appendix.) Lawrence T. McGill, deputy director of the Princeton University Center for Arts and Cultural PolicyStudies, moderated the two formal focus groups, with input from the co-principal investigators. (Mariët Westermann, professor at the Institute of Fine Arts at NYU, moderated the chairs’discussion.) The formal focus groups were audiotaped, to aid in the analysis ofthe findings.

The focus group with younger scholars in art and architectural history was convened by Columbia UniversityProfessor Hilary Ballon and held at Columbia University on October 28, 2005. The session ran from 12:30 to 4:30 p.m. with a half-hourbreak. Twelve scholars participated in the discussion.

The focus group with mid-career and senior scholars was convened by Professor Mariët Westermann and held at the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University on November 18,2005. The session ran from 12:00 noon to 3:30 p.m. with a 15-minute break. Twelve scholars participated in the discussion.

The chairs’discussion took place on December 2, 2005, also at the Institute of Fine Arts at NYU. The session ranfrom about noon to 1:00 p.m. Chairs from about a dozen art history graduate programs in the northeastern U.S. participated in thediscussion.

The remainder of this appendix presents the letters of invitation, the advance questionnaires, and thediscussion guides for the October 28 and November 18 focus groups.

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Source:  OpenStax, The state of scholarly publishing in the history of art and architecture. OpenStax CNX. Sep 22, 2006 Download for free at http://cnx.org/content/col10377/1.2
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