Technology-Driven Changes in Scholarly Publishing

1. Technology-Driven Changes in Scholarly Publishing The Outlook for Born-Digital Books Kate Wittenberg, Ithaka

2. Gutenberg-e Project Launched in 1999 with leadership from Robert Darnton and support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation American Historical Association selected six dissertations each year and awarded prizes E-Publishing staff at Columbia worked with authors to create the digital monographs

3. Initial Goals Enable enhanced forms of historical scholarship and writing Influence a change in attitudes toward digital publishing in the academy Contain costs and increase publishing activity for highly specialized scholarly monographs

4. Project Findings Authors and publishing staff collaborated in creating new models of scholarship and writing Over the course of the project, attitudes toward digital publications evolved Time and costs involved in producing these books exceeded expectations but allowed specialized works to be published to high editorial and production standards

5. New Models of Scholarship and Writing in Born-Digital Books Authors are active collaborators rather than “lone toilers” in creating their work Editors and web developers are researchers creating new models rather than staff managing finished manuscripts Both authors and publishers learn to think in new ways about the presentation and dissemination of scholarship

6. Questions Raised with Digital Books Must a scholarly narrative be presented in linear form? How does one present an “authorial voice” in an interactive publication? Are images, archives, and data supplementary or the organizing structure in an e-book? Does the digital format allow for new scholarly argument and interpretation? Can new “textbooks” be created by integrating e-books and digital teaching tools?

7. Practical Strategies to Address Concerns in the Academy Clear definition of peer-review process Production of “bound galleys” of e-books for journal reviewers Letters from publishers to hiring and tenure committees Authors’ experiences with the hiring and review process is changing, but there is still some uncertainty towards digital publication

8. Future of Born-Digital-Books and Scholarly Publishing Economic imperatives, technological advances, and new forms of scholarship are pushing e-books forward--publishers must follow Increasingly, monographs will be discovered and read in a digital environment New technologies for discovery and distribution may increase audiences for scholarly books Authors have more input into the form, functionality, and dissemination of their books in the digital environment.