This paper presents the findings of the ENRESSH network with relevance to academic and policy communities. As a recently completed COST action running between April 2016 and April 2020, ENRESSH consists of over 150 researchers and policy makers from 40 countries across Europe and beyond. Through its ongoing research and networking, ENRESSH has worked towards two goals: 1) to enhance the visibility of research in the social sciences and humanities (SSH), as well as its potential to address questions around major societal challenges and 2) to develop comprehensive evaluation methods that better fit how researchers in the SSH communicate. In response to the first goal, ENRESSH proposes that, in order to enhance the visibility of the SSH, impact assessments need to be more inclusive, in particular towards the values and practices of the SSH. This could be achieved by focusing on the interaction processes between researchers and stakeholders, by acknowledging different types of impact and impact pathways, and by improving the understanding of impact by SSH researchers. In response to the second goal of improving evaluation methods, ENRESSH recommends that (extended) peer review constitutes the basis for evaluation, given that it is more suitable to meet the specific cognitive, and often context-dependent, challenges of SSH research. While peer review may continue to be supported by quantitative measurements, these need to be aligned with the types of output and communication patterns prevalent in the SSH. Finally, in order to implement our research-based vision, the ENRESSH community advocates a closer a collaboration between SSH researchers, policy makers and societal stakeholders.

This study explores whether there exists a European space of social sciences and humanities (SSH) scholarship in terms of journal use by focusing on journals that explicitly position themselves as Europe-oriented or internationally oriented. We gauge the prevalence of publications in Europe-oriented journals and to what extent the same scholarly journals are used in the SSH across different European countries. We analyze bibliographic metadata of 8,101 SSH journal articles collected from five research-intensive universities in Finland, Flanders (Belgium), Norway, and Spain for the period 2014–2015. We compare the results overall as well as at the level of SSH disciplines to find out to what extent a shared European journal space is emerging between the national and the international level. Differences between broad fields and individual disciplines as well as the institutions are discussed. With regard to journal sharing, the results are partially negative in the sense that we did not find extensive shared journal spaces. In this limited shared journal space however, Europe-oriented journals are of considerable importance. We include reflections on what the value of comprehensive bibliographic data would be for research into the European SSH.

Recently there has been a growing scholarly interest in young researchers’ challenges and struggles in academia, as well as in mentoring and career support and development issues. Based on 56 semi-structured interviews conducted with young scholars in the social sciences and humanities in 14 European countries, this paper provides recommendations for early career investigator support. The set of recommendations includes advice for early career investigators themselves, for supervisors, for decision makers at higher education institutions and research institutes, for policy makers and funders, and for peer reviewers. The major themes and trends identified across the interviews show that both individuals and institutions can play a major role in junior researchers’ career-building and development.