Collaboration is essential for the Future of the Academic Book, finds Academic Book of the Future Report

Tuesday 13 June 2017: Two major new reports published today demonstrate that the future of the academic book is at a crossroads with the number of new book proposals growing rapidly but sales per title continuing to fall. Researchers on the Academic Book of the Future project are recommending that academics and publishers work together to develop a new vision for the sector that embraces technology and focuses on enhancing the readers experience.  The findings of the two-year research initiative, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council in collaboration with The British Library, and led by Dr Samantha Rayner (UCL), have been unveiled today in a Policy Report written by Dr Michael Jubb, together with a Project Report outlining the extensive activities and achievements of the project, authored by Professor Marilyn Deegan (KCL). The reports highlight that although a willingness to collaborate across the different stakeholder groups is very positively proven by the outputs of the project, greater dialogue involving academics, libraries, publishers, sales agents, booksellers, intermediaries and beyond, in a context of rapid change and growing external pressures, is vital for sustaining vibrant scholarly communications in the arts and humanities in the future. The report also stresses that, while there are already diverse examples of digital innovations transforming academic book publishing, more research is needed to understand reader behaviours in online environments,...
Source: News from STM - Category: Databases & Libraries Authors: Tags: Featured World Source Type: news