[Ed. Received c/o FRANCOFIL: the following will be of relevance to all of us in the Humanities, and especially those of us dealing – at least occasionally – with “smaller” fields.  The message below concerns French, which isn’t an obvious exampe of obscurity (and the journals mentioned are major ones in the field) – but Medieval Occitan and Catalan poetry, on the other hand …

You are most earnestly encouraged to look at the European Research Index in the Humanities and check that your field is properly represented; and if not, to make recommendations to the European Science Foundation. More information in the original message that now follows below:] 

Dear Colleagues

There is some controversy surrounding the above (European Research Index in the Humanities), designed to classify – though ostensibly not to pass judgement on – European journals in the humanities. On visiting the website (accessible through www.esf.org) and searching in the list of journals classified under the heading of ‘literature,’ I was somewhat perturbed to find French Cultural Studies and Modern and Contemporary France omitted. (Studies in French Cinema isn’t there either but will – I hope – appear in the media studies list to be published shortly). I can only conclude that these omissions are down to the fact that these journals span several disciplines (then again, so does French Studies these days …), and have thus ‘fallen between the cracks.’ There is a feedback form accessible from the website which I would encourage colleagues to download and submit. Some of you may already have done so, but the more recommendations the European Science Foundation receives for (a) journal(s) the more likely omissions such as the above are to be remedied. Given that ERIH is likely to be a fait accompli I would hope that colleagues would not be tardy in submitting for inclusion relevant journals in their field(s).