Englishmen in New York: Redefining academic publishing in digital spaces

Abstract

While the internet, culture and technology have been reshaping publishing and information media for years, academic publishing and scholarship still functions within a model that is effectively several hundred years old. It is time to start asking the hard questions about what it means to publish as an academic, how we engage with published research and how higher degree students engage with research publication. While it is true that most journals now exist in an online format, the vast majority of these simply echo a print format in electronic form - the scholarly paper as a document has remained unquestioned, and persists despite often low levels of true readership. Yet, outside of academia, the definition of publishing is no longer limited to a 'container' of content. Text can exist in a contextual network and be framed by fluid, constantly changing content around it. Identified in this paper are issues in traditional publishing and some of the possibilities and considerations in breaking open the 'container' model to move into an open and dynamic online space. Central to this is the enabling of thesis and dissertation publication in alternative formats via the oScholar project. Please note that this paper makes use of QR codes - a QR-enabled mobile device is recommended but not required when reading this paper.