The Press plans to develop and pilot a model for peer review and eventual electronic publishing of single-author digital monographs. This model will involve sharing resources among small university presses to ensure economic viability and to help alleviate the pressures facing academic publishing.
"Our project will leverage the expertise available at small university presses and build their capacity to encourage more scholarly publishing in the humanities," said Dr. B. J. Robinson, UPNG director and director of the grant project.
Officials say peer review intends to ensure quality scholarship and is a crucial benchmark in the academic review process. In addition, they add, it is one of the most important issues in digital humanities, as it potentially affects access to scholarly work and copyright.
"Large university presses, for various reasons, currently demonstrate reluctance to change and innovate in exploring revolutionizing options for pre- and post-publication peer review, especially as applied to digital monographs," Robinson said. "A small press, like UPNG, can serve as a model to other, larger presses and hopefully work toward a solution that will benefit the entire scholarly community, including scholars, university administrators, editors, librarians, and students."
NEH Digital Start-Up grants are designed to encourage innovations in the digital humanities. Level I funding, like that received by North Georgia, supports brainstorming sessions, data gathering and initial planning. UPNG plans to seek NEH Digital Start-Up grant Level II funding for up to $50,000 to implement the collaborative model developed in this initial work.
In addition to Robinson, project participants include April Loebick, UPNG managing editor; Dr. Markus Hitz, professor of computer sciences; Dr. Chris Jespersen, dean of the School of Arts & Letters; and Dr. Denise Young, executive director of institutional effectiveness. Other participants include the directors of the University Press of Akron, the University Press of Florida, and Wayne State University Press.
An advisory board for the project includes Kathleen Fitzpatrick, director of scholarly communication with the Modern Language Association; Kathy Kiloh, director of Athabasca University Press; Saskia deVries, director of Amsterdam University Press; and members of the Open Textbook Consortium.
Work on the project begins this month with preliminary data gathering among the consortia. In September 2012, Robinson will attend a planning meeting at the NEH offices in Washington, DC, and all project participants will meet for a workshop in Dahlonega in November. Work on the project will culminate in July 2013 with a dissemination of research findings and a white paper that will be posted on the NEH website.
For more information, please visit the University Press of North Georgia website at www.upng.org.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2012/4/247374