Title
Taking stock of the audio description research landscape. A bibliographic approach
Conference name
Media for All 10 Conference
City
Country
Belgium
Modalities
Date
06/07/2023-07/07/2023
Abstract
As Taylor & Perego (2022, p. 1) state in the recently published first edition of the Routledge handbook of Audio Description, AD “is no longer merely a niche interest in the much wider field of audio-visual translation (AVT)”, but has developed as an independent field of study in its own right. Since the turn of the millennium, this field has developed its own specialized conference series, graduate and postgraduate programmes, research groups and publication outlets. Therefore, we feel it is time to take stock of what has been achieved in terms of research in AD so far. The aim of the present paper is to offer an exhaustive overview of the research landscape to date, its evolution, trends, scientific output and research foci, by adopting a bibliographic approach.
Through the analysis of AD publications since the beginning of the century, the present paper wants to explore the following questions:
- How much has been published on AD since the beginning of the century and how has the number of publications evolved since then?
- How well represented is AD research in established TS citation-indexes and databases?
- What are the most frequent publication types in the field (journal, book, dissertation, other)?
- What have been the most frequently explored research topics and research methods and what are the blind spots that still need to be researched?
- Have the main research foci evolved over the years? What are the most recent developments?
- Which journals and articles have been the most highly cited?
Bibliographical studies are only as strong as the bibliographical data that have been accumulated for the envisaged analysis. As a result, for the present paper a comprehensive bibliography on AD related research (books, journals, dissertations, guidelines, etc.) will be compiled, based on searches in some of the most representative indexes, databases and projects (Scopus, ERIC, BITRA, Translation Studies Bibliography, Web of Science, MAPAccess, etc.). This bibliography will form the basis for a series of quantitative and qualitative analyses, including citation and content analysis as well as a diachronic analysis, that allow us to formulate an answer to the questions set forth above.
Through the analysis of AD publications since the beginning of the century, the present paper wants to explore the following questions:
- How much has been published on AD since the beginning of the century and how has the number of publications evolved since then?
- How well represented is AD research in established TS citation-indexes and databases?
- What are the most frequent publication types in the field (journal, book, dissertation, other)?
- What have been the most frequently explored research topics and research methods and what are the blind spots that still need to be researched?
- Have the main research foci evolved over the years? What are the most recent developments?
- Which journals and articles have been the most highly cited?
Bibliographical studies are only as strong as the bibliographical data that have been accumulated for the envisaged analysis. As a result, for the present paper a comprehensive bibliography on AD related research (books, journals, dissertations, guidelines, etc.) will be compiled, based on searches in some of the most representative indexes, databases and projects (Scopus, ERIC, BITRA, Translation Studies Bibliography, Web of Science, MAPAccess, etc.). This bibliography will form the basis for a series of quantitative and qualitative analyses, including citation and content analysis as well as a diachronic analysis, that allow us to formulate an answer to the questions set forth above.