Abstract
This paper reports part of the findings of a project conducted to investigate the current research landscape of archival studies in China and internationally. Study results show that there are similarities and differences between the most popularly studied research areas in Chinese and international archival fields and between the key research topics recommended for the next 5 years by Chinese and international scholars. Three research orientations of archival studies—management, technology, and humanities as well as the areas that need to be delved into in the next 5 years for global and Chinese archival community—were identified. The findings of this article contribute more broadly to our understanding of the status quo and trends of archival research, and can provide a reference for archival scholars to set research agendas at the individual, institutional, local, and national level. The research priorities identified for the next 5 years may be potential areas where international and transdisciplinary cooperation can occur.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Becker C (2018) Metaphors we work by: reframing digital objects, significant properties, and the design of digital preservation systems. Archivaria 85:6–37
Benoit E, Force D (2019) One size does not fit all: graduate archival education in the 21st century. Am Arch 82(1):24–52
Brooks J (2019) Perspectives on the relationship between records management and information governance. Rec Manag J 29(1/2):5–17
Bryman A (2012) Social research methods. Oxford University Press, Oxford
Carter E (2017) Setting the record straight: the creation and curation of archives by activist communities. A case study of activist responses to the regeneration of Elephant and Castle, South London. Arch Rec 38(1):27–44
Caswell M, Migoni AA et al (2017) To be able to imagine otherwise: community archives and the importance of representation. Arch Rec 38(1):5–26
Cecez-Kecmanovic D, Kennan M (2013) Chapter 5. The methodological landscape: information systems and knowledge management. In: Williamson K, Johanson G (eds) Research methods: information, systems, and contexts. Tilde Publishing, Prahran, Victoria, pp 113–138
Chandler K (2017) Investigating original order with cybernetics and community detection algorithms. Arch Sci 17(3):267–283
Chen Z, Zhang C (2018) 对《中华人民共和国档案法》修订草案(送审稿)的修改建议 [Suggestions on the revised draft of archives law of the People’s Republic of China]. Arch Sci Bull 1:4–8
Chilcott A (2019) Towards protocols for describing racially offensive language in UK public archives. Arch Sci 4:359–376
Cifor M (2016) Affecting relations: introducing affect theory to archival discourse. Arch Sci 16(1):7–31
Couture C (2001) Education and research in archival science: general tendencies. Arch Sci 1:157–182
Couture C, Ducharme D (2005) Research in archival science: a status report. Archivaria 59:41–67
Cox R (1994) An analysis of archival research, 1970–1992, and the role and function of the American archivist. Am Arch 57(2):278–288
Cushing A, Shankar K (2019) Digital curation on a small island: a study of professional education and training needs in Ireland. Arch Rec 40(2):146–163
Ding J (2019) 大数据背景下的档案数据保全探析 [Analysis on archival data preservation in the big data era]. Arch Sci Bull 1:34–39
Douglas J, Alisauskas A, Mordell D (2019) Treat them with the reverence of archivists: records work, grief work, and relationship work in the archives. Archivaria 88:84–120
Duff W, Sporn J, Herron E (2019) Investigating the impact of the living archives on eugenics in Western Canada. Archivaria 88:122–161
Farmer D (1995) The language of public administration: bureaucracy, modernity, and postmodernity. The University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa
Feng Z (1991) 我国档案学研究的现状与发展趋势 [The status quo and the development tendencies of Chinese archival studies]. Arch Sci Study 1(16–23):36
Feng H (2018) 改革开放40年中国档案高等教育的历史性跨越 [The historic leap of Chinese archival education during the past 40 years since the reform and opening]. Arch Sci Bull 6:4–9
Feng H (2019) 走向单轨制电子文件管理 [Towards a single track system of electronic records management]. Arch Sci Study 1:88–94
Feng H (2020) 学科探路时代—从未知中探索未来 [A path-finding era of discipline: exploring the future from the unknown]. J Inf Res Manag 3:4–10
Feng H, Jia X (2019) 档案后保管理论的演进与核心思想 [The post-custodial theory of archives: evolution and core concepts]. Arch Sci Bull 4:4–12
Feng H, Liu Y, Ma L (2017) 文件管理的数字转型:关键要素识别与推进策略分析 [Digital transition of records management: identification of key elements and analysis of promotion strategies]. Arch Sci Bull 3:4–11
Foscarini F (2019) The patent genre: between stability and change. Archivaria 87:36–67
Frings-Hessami V (2020) The flexibility of the records continuum model: a response to Michael Karabinos in the shadow of the continuum. Arch Sci 20(1):51–64
Fu R (2020) 当前档案机构改革若干问题探讨 [Discussion on the issues in current archival system reform]. Arch Sci Bull 1:63–69
Gilliland AJ (2015) Permeable binaries, societal grand challenges, and the roles of the 21st-century archival and recordkeeping profession. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/90q5538g. Accessed 19 August 2020
Gilliland AJ, Caswell M (2016) Records and their imaginaries: imagining the impossible, making possible the imagined. Arch Sci 16(1):53–75
Gilliland AJ, Halilovich H (2017) Migrating memories: transdisciplinary pedagogical approaches to teaching about diasporic memory, identity and human rights in archival studies. Arch Sci 17(1):79–96
Gilliland AJ, McKemmish S (2004) Building an infrastructure for archival research. Arch Sci 4(3–4):149–197
Gilliland-Swetland AJ (1992) Archivy and the computer: a citation analysis of North American archival periodical literature. Arch Issues 17(2):95–112
Huang L (2018) 档案保护技术标准体系构建与发展研究 [Research on the construction and development of technical standard system of archival preservation]. Arch Sci Study 6:40–43
Huang X (2020) 2018–0219国外档案学理论的研究热点与前沿趋势探析 [Research hotspots and frontier trends of foreign archival theory from 2018–2019]. Arch Sci Bull 3:29–39
Huang X, Guo Y, Wang D et al (2016) 国外典型档案馆应用社交媒体创新档案服务的实践特点 [The practical characteristics of the typical foreign archives using social media to innovate archival service]. Arch Sci Bull 3:87–93
Jin B, Yan Q (2019) 从档案管理走向档案治理 [The transformation from archives management to archival governance]. Arch Sci Study 1:46–55
Jones M, Darian-Smith K, Tout-Smithm D, McCarthy G (2017) The Dorothy Howard collection: revealing the structures of folklore archives in museums. Arch Manuscr 45(2):100–117
Karabinos M (2018) In the shadows of the continuum: testing the records continuum model through the Foreign and Commonwealth Office ‘Migrated Archives.’ Arch Sci 18(3):207–224
Kim H (2005) A study on comparison of intellectual structure in records management and archives using author cocitation analysis. J Korean Soc Libr Inf Sci 39(3):207–224
Kim H, Lee J (2008) Exploring the emerging intellectual structure of archival studies using text mining: 2001–2004. J Inf Sci 34(3):356–369
Lapp J (2019) Handmaidens of history: speculating on the feminization of archival work. Arch Sci 19(3):215–234
Li M (2019) 我国社群档案建设的意义、困境与路径 [The significance, dilemma and path of community archives construction in China]. Arch Sci Study 2:71–76
Lian Z (2018) 一种新范式:文件连续体理论的发展及应用 [A new paradigm: development and application of the records continuum]. Arch Sci Study 1:14–21
Lian Z (2019a) 数字档案资源社会化开发内涵及模型建构 [The connotation and model construction of the social exploitation of digital archival resources]. Arch Sci Bull 6:27–34
Lian Z (2019b) 中国当代档案学的危机与发展 [Crises and development of Chinese contemporary archival studies]. Arch Sci Study 2:31–35
Liu Y (2020) 区块链技术与文件档案管理:技术和管理的双向思考 [Blockchain technology and records management: thinking from the bidirectional perspectives of technology and management]. Arch Sci Bull 1:4–12
Liu Y, Yang J (2017) 面向电子文件保存的统一元数据模型的构建 [Construction of a unified metadata model for electronic records preservation]. J Libr Sci China 2:66–79
Livingston C (2018) Imagined spaces, preserved places: a case study of historic preservation through applied learning environments and service-learning. Am Arch 81(1):216–230
McKemmish S, Gilliland AJ (2013) Archival and recordkeeping research: past, present and future. In: Williamson K, Johanson G (eds) Research methods: information management, systems, and contexts. Tilde Publishing, Prahran, pp 80–112
Platt V (2018) Restor(y)ing community identity through the archive of Ken Saro-Wiwa. Arch Rec 39(2):139–157
Punzalan R, Marsh D, Cools K (2017) Beyond clicks, likes, and downloads: identifying meaningful impacts for digitized ethnographic archives. Archivaria 84(1):61–102
Qian Y (2018) 从“数字化”到“数据化”—新技术环境下文件管理若干问题再认识 [From “digitization” to “datafication”—re-thinking some issues on records management under the new technology environment]. Arch Sci Bull 5:42–45
Qian Y (2019) 智慧档案馆全域对象与建设层级分析 [Research on the objects domain composition and construction levels of smart archives]. Arch Sci Study 4:109–111
Sheffield R (2018) Facebook Live as a recordmaking technology. Archivaria 85:96–121
Soyka H, Wilczek E (2020) Ten years of archival education and research institutes: a snapshot of scholarship. Arch Sci 20:221–244
Tao S (2017) 海量档案数字资源智能管理及挖掘分析方法研究 [Research on intelligent management and mining analysis method of massive archival digital resources]. Arch Sci Study 6:75–79
Vukliš V, Gilliland AJ (2016) Archival activism: emerging forms, local applications. In: Filej B (ed) Archives in the service of people—people in the service of archives. Alma Mater Europaea, Maribor, pp 14–25
Xiao W, Li D (2017) 非物质文化遗产档案长久保存策略 [Strategies for long-term preservation of intangible cultural heritage archives]. Arch Sci Study 3:54–58
Xie X (2007) 从Hofstede的文化视角看中国文化在创新中的作用 [Viewing the role of Chinese culture in innovation from the perspective of Hofstede’s theory of culture]. Sci Tech Mon 1:27–29
Xu Y (2017) 档案记忆观的理论与实践 [Theory and practice of archival memory]. Renmin University of China Press, Beijing
Yang M (1997) 从国际档案大会看档案学研究的重点及发展趋势 [The focuses and development trends of archival studies based on the analysis on ICA Congresses]. Arch Sci Study 1:12–14
Yu J, Zhou J (2005) 中国文化的实用主义传统与当代文化建设 [The pragmatic tradition of Chinese culture and contemporary cultural construction]. Soc Sci Yunnan 5:134–136
Zhang B, Yang W (2019) 论新时代中国特色档案学话语体系的构建 [On the construction of archives discourse system with Chinese characteristics in the new era]. Arch Sci Bull 5:4–12
Zhang B, Yang W (2020) 中国档案学研究热点与前沿问题探讨 [Discussion on the hotspots and cutting-edge issues of archives research in China]. Doc Inf Knowl 3:28–39
Acknowledgements
We are grateful to the 31 Chinese and international archival scholars for their insightful opinions on the priority research fields of archival studies over the next 5 years, and very thankful to the participants of the AERI2020 workshop Explore the unexplored: the research landscape of archival studies in the next 5 years and the peer reviewers for their inspiring comments.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Feng, H., Lian, Z., Pan, W. et al. Retrospect and prospect: the research landscape of archival studies. Arch Sci 21, 391–411 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10502-021-09364-1
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10502-021-09364-1