Introduction For most of the history of publishing, the hierarchy of value seemed obvious. Content came first. Everything else existed to support it. Authors created manuscripts, editors refined them, publishers packaged them, and distributors delivered them to readers. The better the content, the stronger the publishing program. That logic worked reasonably well during the print … Read more
Introduction The print monograph has been declared dead so many times that it deserves a loyalty card. Ten obituaries, and the next funeral is free. Every few years someone surveys declining print runs, strained library budgets, expanding journal bundles, and the glow of screens in every lecture hall, then announces with solemn certainty that the … Read more
Introduction For over three centuries, the journal article has been the crown jewel of scholarly communication. Since the launch of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society in 1665, considered the world’s first academic journal, researchers have treated journal publication as the ultimate act of intellectual validation. If it was not peer reviewed, formatted into … Read more
Introduction For decades, the global publishing industry has operated on an unspoken assumption. Power lives in a few familiar cities. New York decides the commercial conversation. London shapes the trade lists. Berlin, Amsterdam, and Paris quietly steer segments of scholarly output. If you wanted to understand publishing, you studied those hubs and called it a … Read more
Introduction For decades, academic publishing followed a relatively stable script. Scholars produced research. Commercial publishers packaged and distributed it. Libraries paid the bill. Everyone complained, but the system endured. That stability is now cracking. Universities, research institutes, funders, and even library consortia are increasingly stepping into roles that once belonged almost exclusively to traditional publishers. … Read more