Humanities Research Research Articles

The (dys)regulation of energy storage in obesity.

Metabolic energy stored mainly as adipose tissue is homeostatically regulated. There is strong evidence that human body weight (BW) is physiologically regulated, i.e. maintained within a relatively narrow range in most mammals, including humans. Nevertheless, the prevalence of obesity has increased markedly in recent decades and now constitutes major medical and socioeconomic problems worldwide. This review focuses on understanding this paradox and the clinical issues that it has spawned: how and why do individuals become obese and how can we help those with obesity lose excess BW and body fat and maintain whatever loss they achieve. Excess BW gain occurs when physiological responses that usually resist short-term weight gain fail to compensate for excess caloric intake occurring over extended periods of time, often over many years or even decades. On the other hand, the difficulties of achieving BW loss and maintenance of reduced BW in obese subjects are due, in part, to the operation of the same physiological regulatory system that helps maintain a healthy BW in individuals without obesity. But, given obesity's association with many pathological conditions, we maintain that the physiological processes that resist BW loss and persistently drive regain are examples of dysregulation. Here we review research in humans and animals addressing these and other unresolved issues in the physiology of obesity. We bring important unresolved problems into focus, and, in some cases, propose hypotheses that can further elucidate their mechanisms to provide research opportunities into modalities that might lead to more effective treatments of obesity.

Using Subsidies, Fines, and Restitution with Budget Balance to Combat Digital Piracy

Despite utilizing technical prevention methods and enacting copyright protection legislation, digital piracy has remained a persistent problem. We examine policy remedies to digital piracy whereby the policymaker has to balance its budget between fines on detected pirates, subsidies for legal purchases, and restitution to the firm. In our model, users choose whether to subscribe, copy, or not use the good, a firm decides on subscription fee and quality, and a policymaker determines subsidies, fines, and restitution. We find that the firm’s subscription fee is always increasing in subsidies, fines, and restitution under a budget balance constraint. The impact of these policy instruments on the firm’s investment in quality depends on how user marginal utility is influenced by the quality of the good and how the policymaker redistributes fines back to society, if at all. Using two specific functional forms with additive and multiplicative utility, we explain how these factors come into play. With additive utility, fines increase the firm’s investment in quality. However, with multiplicative utility the firm’s investment in quality decreases with fines if fines are used alone or alongside subsidies. In contrast to prior research, findings of our general framework illustrate that imposing fines on detected pirates “can” be socially optimal when accounting for the policymaker’s budget balance. Our specific functional forms also serve as two instances where imposing fines is always welfare maximizing. Finally, we find that although the policymaker’s optimal intervention improves social welfare and mitigates digital piracy, it leads to a reduction in consumer surplus. This paper was accepted by Hemant Bhargava, information systems. Funding: This work was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada [Grant 435-2016-0431]. Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2021.03463 .

Large Language Modeling to Assist Natural Polyphenols as Green Precipitants for Recycling Spent Batteries.

The growing demand for energy storage batteries, driven by the need to alleviate global warming and reduce fossil fuel dependency, has led to environmental concerns surrounding spent batteries. Efficient recycling of these batteries is essential to prevent pollution and recover valuable metal ions such as nickel (Ni2+), cobalt (Co2+), and manganese (Mn2+). Conventional hydrometallurgical methods for battery recycling, while effective, often involve harmful chemicals and processes. Natural polyphenols offer a greener alternative due to their ability to coordinate with metal ions. However, optimizing polyphenol selection for efficient recovery remains a labor-intensive challenge. This study presents a strategy combining natural polyphenols as green precipitants with the power of GPT-4, a large language model (LLM), to enhance the precipitation and recovery of metal ions from spent batteries. By leveraging the capabilities of GPT-4 in natural language processing, we enable a dynamic, iterative collaboration between human researchers and the LLM, optimizing polyphenol selection for different experimental conditions. The results show that tannic acid achieved precipitation rates of 94.8, 96.7, and 96.7% for Ni2+, Co2+, and Mn2+, respectively, outperforming conventional methods. The integration of GPT-4 enhances both the efficiency and accuracy of the process, ensuring environmental sustainability by minimizing secondary pollution and utilizing biodegradable materials. This innovative strategy demonstrates the potential of combining artificial intelligence-driven analysis with green chemistry to address battery recycling challenges, paving the way for more sustainable and efficient methods.

Emotional analysis of operating room nurses in acute care hospitals in Japan: insights using ChatGPT

AimThis study aimed to explore the emotions of operating room nurses in Japan towards perioperative nursing using generative AI and human analysis, and to identify factors contributing to burnout and turnover.MethodsA single-center cross-sectional study was conducted from February 2023 to February 2024, involving semi-structured interviews with 10 operating room nurses from a national hospital in Japan. Interview transcripts were analyzed using generative AI (ChatGPT-4o) and human researchers for thematic, emotional, and subjectivity analysis. A comparison between AI and human analysis was performed, and data visualization techniques, including keyword co-occurrence networks and cluster analysis, were employed to identify patterns and relationships.ResultsKey themes such as patient care, surgical safety, and nursing skills were identified through thematic analysis. Emotional analysis revealed a range of tones, with AI providing an efficient overview and human researchers capturing nuanced emotional insights. High subjectivity scores indicated deeply personal reflections. Keyword co-occurrence networks and cluster analysis highlighted connections between themes and distinct emotional experiences.ConclusionsCombining generative AI with human expertise offered nuanced insights into the emotions of operating room nurses. The findings emphasize the importance of emotional support, effective communication, and safety protocols in improving nurse well-being and job satisfaction. This hybrid approach can help address emotional challenges, reduce burnout, and enhance retention rates. Future research with larger and more diverse samples is needed to validate these findings and explore the broader applications of AI in healthcare.

Confined spaces in space: Cerebral implications of chronic elevations of inspired carbon dioxide and implications for long-duration space travel.

Cerebrovascular regulation is critically dependent upon the arterial partial pressure of carbon dioxide ( ), owing to its effect on cerebral blood flow, tissue , tissue proton concentration, cerebral metabolism and cognitive and neuronal function. In normal environments and in the absence of pathology, at least over acute time frames, hypercapnia is usually managed readily via the respiratory chemoreflex arcs and/or acid-base buffering capacity, such that there is minimal impact on cerebrovascular and neurological function. However, in non-normal environments, such as enclosed spaces, or with pathology, extended exposures to elevations in can be detrimental to cerebral health. Given the direct effect of protons on cellular function, even if pH is normalized, it is feasible that higher proton concentrations could still produce detrimental effects. Although it seems that humans can work safely in mildly hypercapnic environments for extended periods, chronic respiratory acidosis can cause bone demineralization, renal calcification, perinatal developmental abnormalities, systemic inflammation and impairments in cognitive function and visuomotor skills and can produce cerebral acidosis, potentially inducing sustained alterations in cerebral function. With the advancement of new initiatives in spaceflight, including proposed long-duration missions to Mars, the study of the effects of chronic inspired CO2 on human health is relevant. In this review, we draw on evidence from preclinical, physiological and clinical research in humans to summarize the cerebral ramifications of prolonged and chronic exposures to elevated partial pressures of inspired CO2 and respiratory acidosis.

Artificial intelligence versus human researcher performance for systematic literature searches: a study focusing on the surgical management of base of thumb arthritis

Aim: In the digital age, artificial intelligence (AI) platforms have gradually replaced traditional manual techniques for information retrieval. However, their effectiveness in conducting academic literature searches remains unclear, necessitating a comparative assessment. This study examined the efficacy of AI search engines (Elicit, Consensus, ChatGPT) vs. manual search for literature retrieval, focusing on the surgical management of trapeziometacarpal osteoarthritis. Methods: The study was executed per the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews and PRISMA guidelines. AI platforms were given relevant keywords and prompts, while manual searches used PubMed, Cochrane CENTRAL, Web of Science, and Scopus databases from January 1901 to April 2024. The study focused on English-language randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing surgical management of trapeziometacarpal osteoarthritis (TMCJ OA). Two independent evaluators screened and extracted data from the studies. Primary outcomes involved the quality and relevancy of studies chosen by both search methods, evaluated by false positive rates and number of studies, including outcomes of interest. Results: The manual search yielded the most results (6,018), followed by Elicit (4,980), Consensus (3,436), and ChatGPT (6). Elicit identified the highest number of RCTs (205) but also had the greatest false positive rate (94%). Ultimately, the manual search identified 23 suitable studies, Elicit found 10, Consensus found 9, and ChatGPT identified only 1. No additional studies were found by AI search engines that were not discovered in the manual search. Conclusion: The findings highlight the potential advantages and drawbacks of AI search engines for literature searches. While Elicit was prone to error, Consensus and ChatGPT were less comprehensive. Significant enhancements in the precision and thoroughness of AI search engines are required before they can be effectively utilized in academia.

Didactic properties and learning functions of neural networks

Introduction. The relevance of this research is based on the well-known fact that the challenges created by the digital revolution sharpened many problems within the humanities education. The object of our research is the process of integration of digital approaches into the traditional teaching of humanities as one of the most important challenges faced by contemporary higher education. Digital technologies have already changed and continue to change not only teaching methods and approaches but also the very concept of humanities as a specialized field of knowledge. Within this process, we face innovations that quickly transform into an everyday practice and become embedded into the pre-existing academic and educational processes (access to digital information sources, ease of information production, demonstration and presentation etc.). The aim of this paper is to analyze the process of integration of digital approaches in teaching humanities as one of the most important educational challenges faced by contemporary university. Materials and methods. Since this paper is interdisciplinary in character, its methodological research base relies on integrative conceptual approach allowing us to bring together general theoretical methods (analysis, synthesis, generalization) with cultural, historical, contextual and competence-based research methods. Such an approach provides ample opportunities to introduce existing theoretical and methodological toolkit developed by the humanities in order to understand problems and specific features of digital society and digital culture. Both in this methodology and in content, the concept of digital culture as a research object does not contradict practices established within humanities, but rather can be interpreted as a new area of study. Results. The results of our research demonstrate that digitalization of society led to the emergence of new themes in the humanities and within the education system: criticism of the “black box” character of contemporary digital infrastructure; issues of inequality and discrimination created or supported by digital tools; social effects of digitalization (including its impact on children and young adults); data-related problems: who, how and under what conditions creates, distributes and uses data in contemporary culture and society; anthropological approach that studies interactions between humans and digital technologies; cultural representations of digital technologies: images and narratives that circulate in society and are used to visualize and describe digital phenomena in film, literature, internet, social media etc. Conclusions. The authors conclude that the situation surrounding digitalization of humanities presents a field both of new problems and new opportunities. However, despite the existing issues, humanities research and education constantly produce new models and methods of interaction with the digital reality, which can and should be confidently introduced in education constantly experimenting with the new approaches.

Digital approaches within the humanities education system: integration challenges

Introduction. The relevance of this research is based on the well-known fact that the challenges created by the digital revolution sharpened many problems within the humanities education. The object of our research is the process of integration of digital approaches into the traditional teaching of humanities as one of the most important challenges faced by contemporary higher education. Digital technologies have already changed and continue to change not only teaching methods and approaches but also the very concept of humanities as a specialized field of knowledge. Within this process, we face innovations that quickly transform into an everyday practice and become embedded into the pre-existing academic and educational processes (access to digital information sources, ease of information production, demonstration and presentation etc.). The aim of this paper is to analyze the process of integration of digital approaches in teaching humanities as one of the most important educational challenges faced by contemporary university. Materials and methods. Since this paper is interdisciplinary in character, its methodological research base relies on integrative conceptual approach allowing us to bring together general theoretical methods (analysis, synthesis, generalization) with cultural, historical, contextual and competence-based research methods. Such an approach provides ample opportunities to introduce existing theoretical and methodological toolkit developed by the humanities in order to understand problems and specific features of digital society and digital culture. Both in this methodology and in content, the concept of digital culture as a research object does not contradict practices established within humanities, but rather can be interpreted as a new area of study. Results. The results of our research demonstrate that digitalization of society led to the emergence of new themes in the humanities and within the education system: criticism of the “black box” character of contemporary digital infrastructure; issues of inequality and discrimination created or supported by digital tools; social effects of digitalization (including its impact on children and young adults); data-related problems: who, how and under what conditions creates, distributes and uses data in contemporary culture and society; anthropological approach that studies interactions between humans and digital technologies; cultural representations of digital technologies: images and narratives that circulate in society and are used to visualize and describe digital phenomena in film, literature, internet, social media etc. Conclusions. The authors conclude that the situation surrounding digitalization of humanities presents a field both of new problems and new opportunities. However, despite the existing issues, humanities research and education constantly produce new models and methods of interaction with the digital reality, which can and should be confidently introduced in education constantly experimenting with the new approaches.

Digital approaches within the humanities education system: integration challenges

Introduction. The relevance of this research is based on the well-known fact that the challenges created by the digital revolution sharpened many problems within the humanities education. The object of our research is the process of integration of digital approaches into the traditional teaching of humanities as one of the most important challenges faced by contemporary higher education. Digital technologies have already changed and continue to change not only teaching methods and approaches but also the very concept of humanities as a specialized field of knowledge. Within this process, we face innovations that quickly transform into an everyday practice and become embedded into the pre-existing academic and educational processes (access to digital information sources, ease of information production, demonstration and presentation etc.). The aim of this paper is to analyze the process of integration of digital approaches in teaching humanities as one of the most important educational challenges faced by contemporary university. Materials and methods. Since this paper is interdisciplinary in character, its methodological research base relies on integrative conceptual approach allowing us to bring together general theoretical methods (analysis, synthesis, generalization) with cultural, historical, contextual and competence-based research methods. Such an approach provides ample opportunities to introduce existing theoretical and methodological toolkit developed by the humanities in order to understand problems and specific features of digital society and digital culture. Both in this methodology and in content, the concept of digital culture as a research object does not contradict practices established within humanities, but rather can be interpreted as a new area of study. Results. The results of our research demonstrate that digitalization of society led to the emergence of new themes in the humanities and within the education system: criticism of the “black box” character of contemporary digital infrastructure; issues of inequality and discrimination created or supported by digital tools; social effects of digitalization (including its impact on children and young adults); data-related problems: who, how and under what conditions creates, distributes and uses data in contemporary culture and society; anthropological approach that studies interactions between humans and digital technologies; cultural representations of digital technologies: images and narratives that circulate in society and are used to visualize and describe digital phenomena in film, literature, internet, social media etc. Conclusions. The authors conclude that the situation surrounding digitalization of humanities presents a field both of new problems and new opportunities. However, despite the existing issues, humanities research and education constantly produce new models and methods of interaction with the digital reality, which can and should be confidently introduced in education constantly experimenting with the new approaches.

Gene Expression After Exercise Is Disrupted by Early-Life Stress.

Exercise can be leveraged as an important tool to improve neural and psychological health, either on its own or to bolster the efficacy of evidence-based treatment modalities. Research in both humans and animal models shows that positive experiences, such as exercise, promote neuroprotection while, in contrast, aversive experiences, particularly those in early development, are often neurologically and psychologically disruptive. In the current study, we employed a preclinical model to investigate the therapeutic benefits of exercise on gene expression in the brains of adult rats. Long Evans rats were exposed to maltreatment stress or nurturing care during infancy, with some rats later given voluntary running wheels as an aerobic exercise intervention from Postnatal Days 70 to 90. Our results showed that irisin gene expression, which promotes neuroprotection, was differentially affected by exercise and early exposure to stress. We add to a rapidly growing area of research on the neuroprotective benefits of exercise and shed light on important molecular mechanisms that may affect the efficacy of exercise in different individuals.

Research on Collaborative Creativity in Innovative Humanities through a Hyper-Connected Society and Educational Networks1

Among the transitional changes in a hyperconnected society, humanities and liberal arts education at universities needs to develop innovative courses and new learning methods and contents as a Co-Education Network for the MZ generation, which will be the HomoConnectus generation. For this research, the researcher was selected for the <Creative Convergence Engineering Human Resources Support Project> organized by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy in 2020 to develop an innovative humanities program for engineering students at C University in Seoul, and to conduct the <Posthumanism Reading Education Program for Engineering in the Fourth Industrial Era>. It was then continuously selected as the <Creative Convergence Engineering Resources Support Project> in 2021, and the researcher developed and proceeded with the ｢ Collaborative Creativity Reading Education for Engineering Students at C University in Seoul. Secondly, from 2020 to ｣ 2024, the researcher collaborated with the central library of the university located in small and medium-sized cities in Chungnam to share innovative humanities programs for engineering students at C University in Seoul and other majors such as Big Data, Virtual Reality, Drone Information and Multimedia, and N University students in health care.</br>Through these research results, researchers have come to recognize that it is not just the establishment of a system but the expertise of teachers in charge of innovative education that should be a prerequisite for cultivating cooperative creativity. In addition, in this process, the significance of innovative humanities research was newly discovered in that innovative humanities through the educational network aims for fairness in education in targeting learners from various backgrounds. In addition, when a research foundation centered on cooperative practice is established, it is expected that innovative humanities as an educational network (Co-Education Network) aimed at super connectivity will be more helpful in educational innovation in a hyperconnected society in the significance of cooperative creativity.

Digital Humanities and the K. Kekelidze Georgian National Center of Manuscripts

The recognition of Digital Humanities as a scientific discipline emerged at the K. Kekelidze Institute of Manuscripts by the late 20th century. In the early 1990s, a first project in the field of Digital Humanities was initiated − the development of an automated database of Georgian historical documents. The database was designed to facilitate access to these invaluable resources for both Georgian and international scholars while contributing to the broader mission of promoting Georgia’s cultural heritage. In addition to cataloguing and preserving historical documents, the project had a broader, strategic goal, namely, to illustrate the transformative impact of emerging technologies on Humanities research. It aimed to foster a paradigm shift by encouraging scholars to adopt digital tools as integral part of modern research methodologies. Since then, the Institute – later renamed the Korneli Kekelidze Georgian National Center of Manuscripts – has continued to lead numerous digitally-based projects supported by the Rustaveli Scientific Foundation and in collaboration with various academic institutions. Some of these initiatives are outlined in the present paper.

Humanities Decline in Darkness: How Humanities Research Funding Works

Abstract Humanities research is underfunded, and the institutional sources and intellectual effects of this underfunding are insufficiently appreciated. The paper gives an example of the negative effects of a humanities discipline’s lack of research infrastructure on scholarly work. Section 2 describes the main categories through which research funds arrive on U.S. campuses. Section 3 describes the disproportions between Science & Engineering (S&E or “STEM”) funding and funding for social and cultural disciplines. Section 4 discussions the “institutional funds” that universities use to cover research costs from their own pockets. Section 5 shows that universities do not use their institutional funds to compensate for inequities in humanities funding but to perpetuate them. Section 6 claims that the current state of humanities funding abridges academic freedom and calls on humanities administrative personnel to lead a national campaign to rectify the current situation. Misconceptions about humanities research and its funding must be openly acknowledged and addressed so that it can come to have public effects that reflect its actual intellectual achievements.

Reproducing Sections of a Research in the Field of Indo-Iranian Linguistics Using ChatGPT AI Model – an Experiment

In recent years, practical applications of AI models have become globally accessible and increasingly commonplace. These models have begun to be integrated into scientific research, marking the initial stages of their use in this domain. Among such tools, ChatGPT, recongized as an “AI language model”, is particularly intriguing for examining how it handles linguistic problems. This paper seeks to replicate selected parts of a research previously conducted using traditional methods and evaluate the results produced by the model. The research focused on analyzing the vocabulary of Persian and Arabic origin in Hindi songs from Bollywood movies. The goal of this paper is to determine how effectively an AI model can perform specific tasks originally carried out by a human researcher in the original study.

Digitalized Everyday Past: History of Everyday Life Database

The article presents the international digital humanities project called History of Everyday Life Database and its possibilities for use in humanities research. The foundations of this project, which is run by the Institute of History of the Czech Academy of Sciences, were laid in the 1990s. Its main goal is to form a digital collection of sources (mainly biographical documents) on the history of “everyday life”. The database includes hundreds of such sources in the Czech and German languages and makes them accessible to scholars, students and the public, helping them get a different perspective on the past, one that was not shaped only by “great history”. The project also aims to create an interdisciplinary platform for mutual discussion and a common research space for scholars dealing with the topics of the history of everyday life and memory studies.

Environmental Mixtures Analysis (E-MIX) Workflow and Methods Repository.

Human exposure to complex, changing, and variably correlated mixtures of environmental chemicals has presented analytical challenges to epidemiologists and human health researchers. There have been a wide variety of recent advances in statistical methods for analyzing mixtures data, with most of these methods having open-source software for implementation. However, there is no one-size-fits-all method for analyzing mixtures data given the considerable heterogeneity in scientific focus and study design. For example, some methods focus on predicting the overall health effect of a mixture and others seek to disentangle main effects and pairwise interactions. Some methods are only appropriate for cross-sectional designs, while other methods can accommodate longitudinally measured exposures or outcomes. This article focuses on greatly simplifying the daunting task of identifying which methods are most suitable for a particular study design, data type, and scientific focus. With this goal in mind, we present an organized workflow for statistical analysis considerations in environmental mixtures data. This systematic strategy builds on epidemiological and statistical principles, considering specific nuances for the mixtures' context. We also describe an accompanying online methods repository in development to increase awareness of and inform application of existing methods and new methods as they are developed and identify gaps in existing methods warranting further development.

Developing research competence in students through the study of socio-humanitarian subjects

In today's world, employers value knowledge and the ability to apply it in practice, analyse data and propose solutions. Research competence is becoming an essential factor in professional training. The study aims to develop students' social sciences and humanities research competence. To achieve the aim of the study, various methods were used: theoretical, synthesis, statistical analysis, survey and observation, and correlation analysis. It has been established that it is necessary to train students to conduct research and critically analyse social phenomena in the context of globalisation, innovative changes, and the growing importance of science and technology. It is outlined that funding for the humanities in Ukraine is less than for the technical sciences, but the state, international grants, and private foundations support it. Changes in spending reflect economic and social processes. The survey showed that students feel prepared for social sciences and humanities research but have gaps in experiments and surveys. They are satisfied with the support of teachers but need more practical tasks and resources to improve their skills. The analysis of the curricula showed that there are essential elements for developing research competence. However, there is room for improvement, mainly through more practical training, the use of accurate data and the expansion of methodological support. The correlation analysis showed that the quality of teaching materials and teacher support positively impact students' research competence. This highlights the importance of quality teaching materials and student support for developing research skills. A list of recommended pedagogical technologies for effectively developing students' research competence is presented. It has been established that integrating these recommendations will improve the development of research skills in students studying social sciences and humanities.

Claiming Relevance for Social Science and the Humanities: Relevance Expressions Across Methodological Divides

AbstractThis article addresses the issue of how Social Science and Humanities (SSH) researchers frame and argue relevance, where there are no explicit expectations to do so. It uses research project reports submitted to a Swedish research council, to distil and further analyze ‘relevance expressions’. These expressions illustrate some methodological differences along the lines of the long-standing distinction between nomothetic (generalization oriented) and idiographic (case /description oriented). We extracted relevance claims from a database of project abstracts and reports from the following fields: History, Linguistics, Political Science and Psychology. We interrogated these statements for possible differences with respect to how relevance is expressed. The study finds differences in the way that nomothetic and idiographic expressions imply, argue or derive support for relevance, and that these may be somewhat associated with fields, although with certain qualifications. Importantly, relevance expressions can be viewed as epistemic operations that occur in degrees of concretization, broadly or narrowly formulated, and in different levels of everyday and technical expressions. A key insight is that relevance in SSH appears to be closely associated with the way subjects relate to the empirical. This ultimately lends support for the application of the nomothetic/idiographic as a conceptual, albeit not exhaustive, analytical approach to understanding the relevance of SSH.

Listening to face transplant patients and caregivers: how medical humanities approaches redefine surgical ‘success’

A recent review of face transplants argues that overall, they have been successful. But this verdict is based on surgical measures rather than patient-reported outcomes (PROMs), which for historical reasons...

Expert Consensus Methods In The Humanities: An Exploration of their Potential

Background Despite the significant role of consensus and dissensus in knowledge production, formal approaches to consensus are notably less common in the humanities compared to their frequent application in natural, social, and life sciences. This article therefore explores the potential of expert consensus methods in humanities-related research. Methods In order to do so, an interdisciplinary team of both sciences researchers experienced in consensus methods and researchers familiar with the domain of the humanities and epistemology, conducted a literary review and exchanged their expertise in multiple brainstorm sessions. Results This resulted in the identification of six key elements of expert consensus methods. It also provided for an overview of different types of expert consensus methods that regularly used in the natural, social, and life sciences: Delphi studies, nominal groups, consensus conferences, and Glaser’s state of the art method and illustrative examples from both sciences and humanities-related studies. An overview of possible purposes for applying these methods is provided to identify the research contexts in which these methods have proven their value, which can be extrapolated to humanities related issues for which these methods seem promising. Conclusions The comparisons and categorisation show that, when focusing on the purposes, there seem to be humanities-related issues that may lend themselves better to structured expert consensus methods than their subject matter and research methods might suggest. When deliberately applied in context chosen by researchers with expertise in a specific humanities domain, expert consensus methods can accelerate epistemic process, enhance transparency, increase replicability, stimulate diversity, and encourage fair processes in humanities research and the application of its findings.