Scholarly publishing

[David J Birnbaum]

Charles Gribble's wise observations on scholarly publishing provide
further arguments in support of electronic publishing. A significant part
of the cost of publishing is producing the physical books, distributing
them, and handling the income and outgo. An author who produces
camera-ready copy already absorbs the typesetting costs; not all authors
do this, of course, and not all presses accept camera-ready copy from
authors. Electronic publishing can reduce the production and distribution
costs of scholarly materials, but there are two serious sets of obstacles,
one technical and one social.

On the technical side, electronic publishing only succeeds where there is
adequate standardization; an electronic publication must be readable by a
wide audience using a variety of computer hardware and operating systems.
A proprietary format that is readable only on a narrow range of the
platforms in use by slavists would not provide for adequate distribution.

On the social side, academic administrators look suspiciously at samizdat,
and sometimes even at publications by reputable houses that solicit (i.e.,
require) authors' subventions. Electronic publishing will need to observe
some standards of refereeing and selectivity; Joe Slavist may be able to
publish his own work all by himself, but he might also be able to get it
published under the auspices of an Electronic Slavist Publishing Company,
which could provide the same sort of professional oversight that we
slavists currently contribute as journal editors or readers for academic
publishing houses.

I deliberately pass by the issues of copyright and economics, both of
which I think can be resolved far more easily than the technical and
social obstacles.

--David
==================================================
Professor David J. Birnbaum      djbpitt+ at pitt.edu
The Royal York Apartments, #802  http://www.pitt.edu/~djbpitt/
3955 Bigelow Boulevard           voice: 1-412-624-5712
Pittsburgh, PA  15213  USA       fax:   1-412-624-9714