Synopsis of lecture
Academic Publishing in the 21st Century:
Markets and Technology, Survival and Change
JOSIE DIXON
Debates about the future of scholarly publishing are not a new phenomenon, and the
research monograph in the humanities and social sciences has long been a focus of
particular concern. Yet the sense of crisis has sharpened in recent years, and changes
in the market and in technology have resulted in fundamental shifts in academic
publishers’ business. Digital media have brought a host of new opportunities, but
have arguably introduced at least as many challenges in this rapidly changing
environment. The most fundamental issues for the sustainability of scholarly
publishing relate to the larger workings of the academic economy - involving not just
publishers but funding bodies, research assessment and tenure processes, libraries,
and all the wholesale and retail links in the international distribution chain between
publisher and reader. As part of that broader picture, we need to understand the
varying pressures of supply and demand, together with developments in digital
delivery and accompanying changes in the print economy. In this wide-ranging
lecture, based on 15 years’ publishing experience in both university-press and
commercial-academic sectors, Josie Dixon reviews the state of the market and the
strategies scholarly publishers have developed to ensure the survival of their business.
She outlines some of the new challenges brought by digital technology, including
fundamental questions relating to copyright, intellectual property and open access
which look set to play a central part in reshaping our future. While these issues have
so far been played out most dramatically in the sciences, it is clear that they will have
a major impact in the humanities and social sciences in the coming years.