From:  Gabrielle Karampelas  <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Wed, 14 Jan 2015 08:29:56 -0500

http://library.stanford.edu/news/2015/01/stanford-university-press-awarded-12-million-publishing-interactive-scholarly-works

Monday, January 12, 2015

(Stanford, CA)--Scholars of digital humanities and computational
social sciences will soon have an academic publisher offering a
validated, peer-reviewed process for their interactive scholarly
research projects. Stanford University Press, with grant funding from
the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, will accelerate the integration of
interactive scholarly works, usually revealed as Web sites, and new
narratives enriched with digital objects and rich linking, into its
publishing portfolio.

Stanford University Press will undertake a digital publishing process
that mirrors the rigor and consideration of book publishing. “Adding
interactive scholarly works to traditional publishing programs will
lead to the next generation of university press publishing,” said
Michael A. Keller, university librarian at Stanford and publisher of
the Stanford University Press.

The grant will be implemented over 3 years and according to Keller,
“will spark changes in the expertise and practices of specialist in
all aspects of 21st century academic publishing, beginning with the
practice of research by teams of scholars and leading through
ultimately to all publishing roles.”

Advances in technology have provided scholars with new ways to
visualize and analyze data. The impact of these tools in the academy
continues to evolve as more digital projects take form. “There are
several examples, from across the globe, which demonstrate how the
capabilities of visualization tools have informed humanities
scholarship and offered researchers new lenses for discovery,” said
Keller.

Currently, individuals and research groups host their digital
materials online through their own Web sites, or on various public
platforms. “For the most part these hosting models do not share common
benchmarks or standards and very few incorporate rigorous peer review
processes,” said Dr. Alan Harvey, director of Stanford University
Press.

Defining Digital Publishing Standards

“One goal for establishing a publishing methodology for interactive
scholarly works is to provide a distribution channel that is held in
the same high regard as the long-form monograph counterparts,” said
Harvey.  “It is our intent to give scholars an opportunity to
accumulate a digital publishing pedigree that provides the same
consideration for hiring and tenure as traditional book publishing
offers.”

Stanford University Press will collaborate with the University of
Richmond’s Digital Scholarship Lab on implementation of the grant.  In
addition to developing the system and framework for publishing
digital-born scholarship, the grant will develop a cost-basis for
publishing digital objects and establish an example of publishing
practices that other academic presses can emulate, adopt or adapt.

[SNIP - See full release for more information]

About Stanford University Press

Founded in 1925 Stanford University Press publishes 140 books a year
across a wide range of scholarly fields, including the humanities,
social sciences, law, business, and security studies. In 1999 the
Press formally became an auxiliary unit of the Stanford Libraries.

About the University of Richmond’s Digital Scholarship Lab

The lab develops innovative digital humanities projects that
contribute to research and teaching at the university and beyond. It
aims to integrate thoughtful interpretation in humanities and social
sciences with innovations in new media. For more information, visit
http://dsl.richmond.edu/

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Gabrielle Karampelas
Director of Communications and Development
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