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Category: monographs

On Living Books by Janneke Adema

On Living Books by Janneke Adema

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Janneke Adema considers the contemporary scholarly book and how it could transition from a fixed, bound object to a more fluid and evolving entity. She argues that humanities scholars should reconsider their role as authors and strive to engage with knowledge production in more open, critical, and experimental ways. Adema challenges new media scholars (such as Lev Manovich and John Bryant) and print historians (such as Elizabeth Eisenstein and Adrian Johns) for their perpetuation of the book as an unchangeable,…

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On The State of Open Monographs by Sara Grimme et al.

On The State of Open Monographs by Sara Grimme et al.

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Sara Grimme, Mike Taylor, Michael A. Elliott, Cathy Holland, Peter Potter, and Charles Watkinson survey the open monograph landscape as of 2019. They argue that although there has been an increase in open access monographs produced, there are further activities that could be undertaken to improve and support the production and proliferation of such texts. Namely, the report compilers suggest that publishers improve their digital asset management practices for open monographs by ensuring all digital monographs are assigned a DOI…

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On “The Visibility of Open Access Monographs in a European Context: Full Report,” by Cameron Neylon et al.

On “The Visibility of Open Access Monographs in a European Context: Full Report,” by Cameron Neylon et al.

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In this Open Access Publications in Europe in Areas for Social Sciences and Humanities (OPERAS) report, Cameron Neylon, Lucy Montgomery, Alkim Ozaygen, Neil Saunders, and Frances Pinter study the visibility of open access monographs, particularly in Europe. They argue that it is currently difficult to track the usage of open access monographs, due to poor metadata standards and a lack of robust digital asset tracking. Neylon et al. come to this conclusion by studying the publishers involved in the OPERAS…

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On “Final Report, Canadian Scholarly Publishing Working Group”

On “Final Report, Canadian Scholarly Publishing Working Group”

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The Final Report of the Canadian Scholarly Publishing Working Group outlines the current challenges to the Canadian academic publishing system, as well as suggests principles to guide a successful, sustainable system moving forward. These principles include accountability (to the academy), supporting openness and high-quality publishing practices, well-informed authors, dynamic Canadian publishing opportunities, building on strength, and flexibility and adaptability. The report applauds initiatives like the collaboration between Érudit and the Canadian Research Knowledge Network to bring more open access journals…

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On “Open Access Publishing and Scholarly Communication in Non-Scientific Disciplines,” by Martin Paul Eve

On “Open Access Publishing and Scholarly Communication in Non-Scientific Disciplines,” by Martin Paul Eve

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In “Open Access Publishing and Scholarly Communication in Non-Scientific Disciplines,” Martin Paul Eve considers why the humanities and social sciences have lagged behind the STEM disciplines in the widespread acceptance and implementation of open access. He argues that there are social and economic reasons for this gap in uptake. Eve provides the context for shifts in scholarly communication—namely the emergence of the “publish or perish” paradigm and the unsustainable serial subscription model—and suggests that it is a backdrop for both…

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On “The Monograph: Keep on Keepin’ On,” by Robert Fisher (Parts 1 & 2)

On “The Monograph: Keep on Keepin’ On,” by Robert Fisher (Parts 1 & 2)

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In this two-part blog post on The Scholarly Kitchen titled “The Monograph: Keep on Keepin’ On,” Richard Fisher takes on the argument that the monograph is in decline. He argues that, in fact, the rhetoric around the death of the monograph is overblown, and that there is no lack of supply for monographs nor are the major commercial academic book publishers under threat. Fisher relies heavily on Geoffrey Crossick’s HEFCE report on the vitality of monograph publishing. As such, much…

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On Planned Obsolescence: Publishing, Technology, and the Future of the Academy, by Kathleen Fitzpatrick

On Planned Obsolescence: Publishing, Technology, and the Future of the Academy, by Kathleen Fitzpatrick

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In the oft-cited touchstone book Planned Obsolescence: Publishing, Technology, and the Future of the Academy, Kathleen Fitzpatrick examines the current academic publishing system, and outlines its drawbacks and possibilities. She suggests that the current fixation on the printed book monograph, at least in the humanities, needs to change. For Fitzpatrick, the monograph is part of an undead, zombie logic of the academy, as it represents a mandatory but often dysfunctional system of scholarly communication. Beyond the monograph, Fitzpatrick argues, we…

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On “Reassembling Scholarly Communications: An Evaluation of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s Monograph Initiative,” by John Maxwell, Alessandra Bordini, and Katie Shamash

On “Reassembling Scholarly Communications: An Evaluation of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s Monograph Initiative,” by John Maxwell, Alessandra Bordini, and Katie Shamash

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The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation supported 13 monograph-focused grants in 2014-15, and John Maxwell, Alessandra Bordini, and Katie Shamash were tasked with reporting on each of these initiatives. “Reassembling Scholarly Communications: An Evaluation of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s Monograph Initiative” is the report that summarizes their findings after studying each funded project and discussing it with project leads. Of note, the authors organize the projects into 4 unique categories: 1) Studies of monograph publishing processes and economics; 2) Projects…

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On “The Costs of Publishing Monographs: Toward a Transparent Methodology,” by Nancy Maron, Kimberly Schmelzinger, Christine Mulhern, and Daniel Rossman

On “The Costs of Publishing Monographs: Toward a Transparent Methodology,” by Nancy Maron, Kimberly Schmelzinger, Christine Mulhern, and Daniel Rossman

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Although there are various opinions on how best to fund scholarly communication in general and open access publication in particular, some key data regarding the actual cost of knowledge production is missing. In their study “The Costs of Publishing Monographs: Toward a Transparent Methodology,” Nancy Maron, Kimberly Schmelzinger, Christine Mulhern, and Daniel Rossman tackle this issue, with a focus on monographs. Their tri-partite goal is to: provide a comprehensive list of all of the activities needed in order to produce…

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On “The Future of The Monograph in the Digital Era: A Report to the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation,” by Michael A. Elliott

On “The Future of The Monograph in the Digital Era: A Report to the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation,” by Michael A. Elliott

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The majority of conversations around open access scholarly communication centre on the academic article as the research output in question. This is the case for a variety of reasons:  there are many more academic articles published annually than monographs or other research output; articles are the units of the serial crisis; the transition from toll access to OA seems most feasible with articles because of relatively low production costs, etc. In “The Future of The Monograph in the Digital Era:…

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