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Category: publishing

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 “Liberation Through Cooperation,” by Dave S. Ghamandi

On “Liberation Through Cooperation,” by Dave S. Ghamandi

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In “Liberation through Cooperation: How Library Publishing Can Save Scholarly Journals from Neoliberalism,” Dave S. Ghamandi argues that the current academic publishing system is thoroughly entrenched in contemporary neoliberalism. He also suggests that certain directions that the Open Access movement is taking—such as the increase of Article Processing Charges (APCs)—further a neoliberal agenda as they maintain a capital concentration with the oligopoly of corporate academic publishers. Ghamandi calls for a more radical approach to scholarly communication premised on cooperative models:…

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On Reassembling Scholarly Communications by Martin Paul Eve and Jonathan Gray

On Reassembling Scholarly Communications by Martin Paul Eve and Jonathan Gray

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Reassembling Scholarly Communications: Histories, Infrastructures, and Global Politics of Open Access draws together various chapters on the current and future state of scholarly communication, especially in relation to open access and open scholarship movements. Eve and Gray have incorporated perspectives from around the globe in this collection, with an emphasis on critical approaches to open scholarship endeavours and activities. For instance, Thomas Hervé Mboa Nkoudou argues that open access can be quite detrimental in Africa, where the pressure to publish…

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On “In Pursuit of Open Science, Open Access is Not Enough,” by Claudio Aspesi and Amy Brand

On “In Pursuit of Open Science, Open Access is Not Enough,” by Claudio Aspesi and Amy Brand

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Claudio Aspesi and Amy Brand warn the academic community about the pitfalls of an uncoordinated approach to open access in their article “In Pursuit of Open Science, Open Access is Not Enough.” The authors suggest that the current open access hype is opening the door for an increased monopoly of digitized academic services and assets by the Top 5 publishers. In particular, Aspesi and Brand highlight the increase of commercial publisher activity in the areas of data analytics, research and service…

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On “A Multi-disciplinary Perspective on Emergent and Future Innovations in Peer Review,” by Jonathan P. Tennant et al.

On “A Multi-disciplinary Perspective on Emergent and Future Innovations in Peer Review,” by Jonathan P. Tennant et al.

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In “A Multi-disciplinary Perspective on Emergent and Future Innovations in Peer Review,” Jonathan P. Tennant and a large group of co-authors consider the past, present, and future of peer review in scholarly communication. They suggest that although academic publishing is largely done online, peer review methods broadly have yet to catch up to the possibilities that our networked world hold. Tennant et al. argue that resistance to reforming peer review for the modern age is “largely a hangover from the…

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On “Ten Hot Topics Around Scholarly Publishing,” by Jonathan Tennant et al.

On “Ten Hot Topics Around Scholarly Publishing,” by Jonathan Tennant et al.

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Jonathan Tennant, Harry Crane, Tom Crick, Jacinto Davila, Asura Enkhbayar, Johanna Havemann, Bianca Kramer, Ryan Martin, Paola Masuzzo, Andy Nobes, Curt Rice, Bárbara Rivera-López, Tony Ross-Hellauer, Susanne Sattler, Paul D. Thacker, and Marc Vanholsbeeck present and explore 10 oft-debated issues in scholarly communication, in particular around open access publishing. They suggest that there are various misconceptions and differing opinions floating around in this realm, and hope to tackle some of these issues in order to bring more clarity to the…

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On The Poethics of Scholarship, by Kaja Marczewska, Janneke Adema, Frances McDonald, and Whitney Trettien

On The Poethics of Scholarship, by Kaja Marczewska, Janneke Adema, Frances McDonald, and Whitney Trettien

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In this self-declared “open access pamphlet,” the editors (and authors)— Kaja Marczewska, Janneke Adema, Frances McDonald, and Whitney Trettien—take a critical approach to open, digital scholarship. They frame such an approach within the concept of a scholarly “poethics,” or, an ethical poetics. This conception is present throughout the three short essays that make up this pamphlet. Marczewska offers “The Horizon of the Publishable in/as Open Access: From Poethics to Praxis,” where she rails against the co-opting and corporatization of the…

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On Generous Thinking, by Kathleen Fitzpatrick

On Generous Thinking, by Kathleen Fitzpatrick

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In the recently published Generous Thinking: A Radical Approach to Saving the University, Kathleen Fitzpatrick ruminates on the current state academia, with a focus on dominant trends toward competition and individualism and weakening public support. “The university has been undermined,” she writes, “by the withdrawal of public support for its functions, but that public support has been undermined by the university’s own betrayals of the public trust” (xi). She argues that a substantial shift in academia is required in order…

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On “Thoughts on Prestige, Quality, and Open Access,” by Peter Suber

On “Thoughts on Prestige, Quality, and Open Access,” by Peter Suber

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Peter Suber unpacks the relationship between prestige and journal publishing in “Thoughts on Prestige, Quality, and Open Access.” He argues that, despite suggestions to the contrary, the institutional emphasis on prestige in the academy does not have to be a barrier to open access (OA), which many feel is not as prestigious as toll access (TA) publishing. Prestige is not an obstacle to green OA, as authors may have the option to deposit pre- or post-prints of their TA articles…

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On “In Oldenburgś Long Shadow: Librarians, Research Scientists, Publishers, and the Control of Scientific Publishing,” by Jean-Claude Guedon

On “In Oldenburgś Long Shadow: Librarians, Research Scientists, Publishers, and the Control of Scientific Publishing,” by Jean-Claude Guedon

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In In Oldenburgś Long Shadow: Librarians, Research Scientists, Publishers, and the Control of Scientific Publishing, Jean-Claude Guédon assesses the state of academic publishing as of 2001, including library activities and commercial publisher strategies. This early contribution to the open scholarship / scholarly communication conversation was originally presented in a talk to the Association of Research Libraries. Guédon argues that libraries need to take a more prominent role in the dissemination elements of scholarly communication by actively supporting and being involved…

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