From: Zac Rolnik <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Fri, 25 Jan 2019 21:43:44 +0000

Following up on this announcement, I would like to point out that this “new
concept in academic publishing… combining the best features of books and
journals” is not new at all, yet publishers continue to claim this novel
idea as their own.



The idea of these short form works is not new and we saw these in the 1980s
with Sage’s “little green books” – the Quantitative Applications in the
Social Sciences series “has served countless students, instructors, and
researchers in learning cutting-edge quantitative techniques. These brief
volumes address advanced quantitative topics.”  The first volume – Analysis
of Variance by Iverson and Norpoth – was published in 1987.  This was
followed shortly by Harwood Fundamentals of Pure and Applied Economics
series – “a groundbreaking attempt to provide a comprehensive overview of
modern economics. A series of short books - arranged into thematic sections
- provides state-of-the-art accounts of key areas within the discipline.”
I don’t have the exact date by it was also around 1987.  While QASS
continues to publish, The Harwood series published by Gordon and Breach was
never completed.  These are probably not the only attempts of this short
format preWWW.



With scholarly content moving online, we started seeing a blurring between
journals and books.  I would find authors who had to cut longer review
articles in order to get them published in traditional edited book and
journal outlets and they would ask if I could publish the longer manuscript
– unfortunately these were too long for journals and too short for books.
But recognizing that review articles were the most cited articles in the
academic literature, we saw a niche for these longer form works giving
authors enough space to have a voice, but not sticking them with 200+ pages
to fill.  We liked the idea of journal peer review for quality control,
we’d allow authors to update their work online to keep it current, we let
the author retain copyright, and we published within 12 weeks of final
acceptance both online and in print.  This idea was Foundations and Trends (
www.nowpublishers.com), which published its first issue in  June 2004.  In
parallel, Morgan and Claypool were developing their Syntheses Digital
Library of Engineering and Computer Science where “the basic component of
the library is a 50- to 100-page "Lecture"; a self-contained electronic
book that synthesizes an important research or development topic, authored
by an expert contributor to the field”.  This was launched in October
2005.  These were probably the first two modern (born digital) attempts at
the short-form work.



Following the success of these new entries and the “short-form work”, we
witnessed many publishers moving into this space including Springer Briefs
in 2011 (Springer Briefs “are concise summaries of cutting-edge research
and practical applications across a wide spectrum of fields. Featuring
compact volumes of 50 to 125 pages, each series covers a range of
professional and academic topics.”), Palgrave Pivot in 2012 (“Palgrave
Pivot has enabled authors to publish at lengths of between 25,000 and
50,000 words - longer than a journal article, but shorter than a monograph,
taking advantage of a swift and flexible publication process to
dramatically reduce publication times.”), *Elgar Advanced Introductions* in
2014 (“stimulating and thoughtful introductions to major fields in the
social sciences and law, expertly written by the world’s leading scholars.
Designed to be accessible yet rigorous, they offer concise and lucid
surveys of the substantive and policy issues associated with discrete
subject areas.”), *Brill Research Perspectives* in 2016 (where “each issue
consists of one uniquely focused article of 70-100 pages”), Emerald Point
in 2017 (“a short-form book series that promises submission to publication
in 12 weeks. This makes it an ideal channel for responses to current
affairs and contemporary issues. We also welcome think-pieces or polemics,
policy-focused research or findings with relevance for practitioners, and
in-depth case studies, as well as theoretical or analytical work.”), and in
2019 Cambridge University Press has given us Cambridge Elements (“a new
concept in academic publishing and scholarly communication, combining the
best features of books and journals. They consist of original, concise,
authoritative, and peer-reviewed scholarly and scientific research,
organised into focused series edited by leading scholars, and provide
comprehensive coverage of the key topics in disciplines spanning the arts
and sciences.”)



Just pointing out that nothing is new and we thank the other publishers for
confirming interest in the short-form work and helping make a market for
these works.





From: *Ann Okerson* <[log in to unmask]>

Date: Wed, Jan 16, 2019 at 7:55 AM

Maybe of interest:



*Introducing Cambridge Elements, our new concept in academic publishing. *

Cambridge Elements are a new concept in academic publishing and scholarly
communication, combining the best features of books and journals. They
consist of original, concise, authoritative, and peer-reviewed scholarly
and scientific research, organised into focused series edited by leading
scholars, and provide comprehensive coverage of the key topics in
disciplines spanning the arts and sciences.

Regularly updated and conceived from the start for a digital environment,
they provide a dynamic reference resource for graduate students,
researchers, and practitioners.

https://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/elements