Open AccessOpen access monographs: a humanities research perspective
Author(s) -
Jim Cheshire
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
insights
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.41
H-Index - 14
ISSN - 2048-7754
DOI - 10.1629/2048-7754.121
Subject(s) - publishing , digital humanities , perspective (graphical) , library science , relation (database) , quality (philosophy) , media studies , sociology , humanities , history , art , computer science , visual arts , literature , epistemology , philosophy , database
This article discusses the thoughts of a humanities researcher in relation to open access (OA) publishing. Digital media have dramatically improved access to historic texts but library e-books are frustrating due to software and loan arrangements. Authors of illustrated books risk losing control of book design, although new media offer opportunities to improve image quality and access. Alfred Tennyson's career shows that authors have been sensitive about the physical form of their work since the Victorian period and ignoring the material significance of the book could make us overlook the fundamental changes that the e-book represents. Monographs retain value as a way of evaluating substantive research projects and those published through the OA process will have great advantages over the commercial e-book. ‘Green’ OA publishing is impractical for humanities scholars and funded ‘gold’ OA publishing is likely to involve a labour-intensive application process