Join Academia.edu today ?

[us4-he2-gal2]

Academia.edu

This is a suggestion to all enenuru members who are serious enough to log on and read things from time to time and would really like to read some scholarly works - Why not join academia.edu?


I haven't made this suggestion before because I had thought of the service as one only open to people currently enrolled in a university. I found this to be a bit restrictive, but this week I note one of our members has joined as an independent researcher - so I am now urging interested person to follow suit. If the service is really open to interested readers, why not use it?



The advantage of using academia.edu is that many scholars have chosen to share their papers and a good number of Assyriologists have uploaded papers to their profiles which can be easily downloaded. This means that a trip to your local university library isn't the only way to access this material anymore. The website represents one of the easiest alternatives, although obviously many scholars aren't participating as of yet.


To join make a account on the website (easy) and enter your univerisity, or check the "independent researcher" button below. The site replicates some aspects of the academic word - the setup is very formal, having none of the social aps as facebook and (fortunately) no "like" button; generally there is little social interaction to speak of. In my opinion, many scholars, even high ones, would appreciate a thank you or a compliment on one of their papers - everyone likes encouragement. Some may even answer a simple question, but if it's more than can be answered of the top of the head (without having to look in a book) many scholars won't have time. Or won't feel they have time 0_0 So compliments or small questions. When it comes to sharing your own idea's, some academics are predictably prudish - on one occasion I had some of my input rudely rejected on academia.edu. But this reflect human nature more than the site - in any group of people there are those who are generous and those who aren't.



Some scholars with papers available at site right now include:

Peter Espak (new 2010 Dissertation on Enki and some 15 papers some in Estonian)


ut-ee.academia.edu/PeeterEspak




Dina Katz writes on the Netherworld (around 16 papers)


independent.academia.edu/DinaKatz





Piotr Michalowski (15 papers):

umich.academia.edu/PiotrMichalowski





Selz has uploaded 80-100 papers, some in English:


univie.academia.edu/GebhardJSelz





Niek Veldhuis has uploaded 13 papers:

berkeley.academia.edu/NiekVeldhuis





Frans Wiggermann uploaded 18 papers:


vu-nl.academia.edu/FransWiggermann





Also Vladimir Emelianov uploaded 10 papers:


spbu.academia.edu/VladimirEmelianov

[enkur]

Thanks for the links. I haven't been there since long.

[us4-he2-gal2]

I should add: David I. Owen, Clemen's Reichel, Paul Alain Beaulieu, Douglas Frayne, Gonzalo Rubio all have profiles - further
Gábor Zolyomi has uploaded many papers on Sumerian language and some on myth.

[amarsin]

Lots more people have joined and you can pull down scores of PDFs. No harm in asking to follow someone. The worst that happens is that they ignore you.

[us4-he2-gal2]

Definitely Amar-sin, actually it is normal that people ignore you when you follow them on academia.edu - I mean, ignore is too strong of a word. It's just that people don't generally send you a little message "thanks for following me blah blah" but this isn't expected either. Now whether people answer you when you write a message that can be hit or miss, but it can be hit or miss on email of FB as well.


In any case some people with new profiles and interesting work at academia this month include: David I. Owen, Lance Allred and Gregorio Del Olmo Lete has uploaded almost 100 papers now. I haven't seen to many independent researchers from enenuru on academia.edu, no reason not to join however.