Beyond the Monograph: Publishing Research for Multimedia and Multiplatform Delivery

Abstract

The output of university presses remains centred on a stand-alone, print-driven book paradigm, despite technological developments that can enable ‘interaction, communication, and interconnection.’ In order to improve the distribution of books, several university presses have invested in the development of online content platforms, but the great majority of digital publishing output is limited to PDF, ePub, and HTML files. Inspired by increasing popularity of mobile technologies and devices, this article investigates opportunities for greater use of digital media in scholarly book publishing. It focuses on the feasibility of producing ebook applications and using social networking platforms as a way to make complex information accessible to wider audiences enabling improved research dissemination and increased engagement with individual works.

Books Contain Multitudes: Exploring Experimental Publishing (2022 update)

“…As Mrva-Montoya states: 'the majority of scholarly book publishers remain focused on monographs and edited collections, released in multiple formats (print, ePub, and so on), but with linear content refined using traditional editing practices and the design driven by the paradigm of the printed page. We are still effectively dealing with ''print'' books hosted in an online environment' (Mrva-Montoya, 2015). In this respect the digital on its own is not necessarily experimental, especially when in most cases it simply emulates print in appearance and through restricted closed forms of licensing (e.g., DRM).…”

“…'while the open access publishing model is certainly transformational, it is driven by experimenting with the new business, distribution, and permission models rather than with a new format of scholarly communication practice' (Mrva-Montoya, 2015).…”

“…If:book saw Wikipedia as a networked book par excellence and described a networked book as open, disaggregated, social, and processed (Vershbow, 2006;White, 2006;Esposito, 2003). Mrva-Montoya defines it as a book that is 'written, edited, and read in a networked environment that emphasizes author-reader interaction' (Mrva-Montoya, 2015). The term 'networked book' was used to describe Wark's versioned or processual book Gamer Theory and Fitzpatrick's openly reviewed Planned Obsolesence, for example.…”

Nigerian LIS Academic and Scholarly Publishing Experience: Challenges and the Way Forward

“…Business models, as well as the concept of a product or service, and copyrights, have all changed as a result of this (Brown and Boulderstone, 2008). The advancement of communication technologies has changed the way people communicate in terms of place and time, as well as providing new opportunities to integrate material, share expertise, and disseminate information (Mrva-Montoya, 2015). One of academics' significant problems, along with the challenge of transforming their research into'research output,' is the 'time delay' between submitting scholarly work (particularly journal articles) and publishing it (Ductor, 2015).…”

The academic book and its digital dilemmas

“…The current general consensus around what constitutes an e-book, moreover, is a far more limited, and print-centric, view than that which circulated in its early history (and which pointed to an altogether more ambitious concept of ‘electronic book’). These less ambitious, to use Mrva-Montoya’s phrase, ‘tradigital’ books (Mrva-Montoya, 2015), in PDF or EPUB format have been easier to produce because they do not fundamentally undermine existing models, and as a result, they represent a limited engagement with digital modes and affordances. In a similar vein, Prescott, in asking if we are ‘doomed to a world of PDFs?’, expresses concern that ‘the future publishing landscape is a bleak one’ and argues that the scholarly environment it is supposed to serve is ‘less media rich’ now than it was a few decades ago (Prescott, 2015).…”