The Academic Book of the Future

Edited by Rebecca E. Lyons and Samantha J. Rayner
13th November
Open Access Palgrave Pivot
£20 | $31
E-copy (Digital-first format) | 9781137595775 (PDF) | 9781137595782 (EPUB)
Hardback (Print-on-demand) | 9781137595768

What makes a book ‘academic’? What spaces, physical and digital, can they be found in? How are they made, bought, and read? Most importantly – what does the future hold for them?

In The Academic Book of the Future, these questions are tackled by a cross-section of 13 experts from the fields of bookselling, publishing, university libraries, and academic research. By framing the present realities of campus bookshops and bookselling, the role of national libraries, Open Access, the Research Excellence Framework, and publishing innovation, the contributors spark conversations on the possibilities of the future. Will we see wearable books in the form of smart contact lenses or network chips embedded in our hands, bringing ‘interactivity’ and ‘Linked Ideas’ to a whole new level? What new delivery and discovery methods will we need in order to make use of metadata, new supply chains, and digital tools? And how will the format, content, and price be shaped by both the ever-changing market and the academic authors of the future: the students

Together the contributors have worked to produce a witness to the extraordinary set of talents, experiences, ideas, and reflections that connect people who help form the contexts of the academic book. The Academic Book of the Future embodies the commitment to all academic books, in their past, present, and future states. It aims to show that if one thing is certain, it is that the future of the academic book lies in collaboration.

This volume of essays was produced in conjunction with the team from the AHRC/British Library Academic Book of the Future Project as an accelerated publishing challenge for the first ever Academic Book Week (9-16 November).

This book is open access under a CC BY licence, which means it is available for free to download from online retailers such as Amazon Kindle, immediately upon publication. Print copies will also be available print on demand. A CC BY license is the most permissive open access license, meaning that readers can alter, transform, or build upon the content and then distribute the resulting work as long as the original work is correctly cited.

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About the Authors

This volume is written by a cross-section of academics, publishers, booksellers and librarians who are collaborating with the AHRC/British Library Academic Book of the Future Project. It has been edited by members of the Project team (Rebecca E. Lyons and Samantha J. Rayner). Find out more about the Project and its aims here: http://academicbookfuture.org/.

For more information on Palgrave Macmillan’s involvement is the Academic Book of the Future Project, visit http://www.palgrave.com/page/countdown/

For more information on the book or to get in touch with the author(s) please contact:

Rebecca Krahenbuhl, Palgrave Macmillan, rebecca.krahenbuhl@palgrave.com, +44 0207 014 6634

For more information on Academic Book Week please contact:

Edwina Boyd-Gibbins, Midas PR, edwina.boyd-gibbins@midaspr.co.uk, +44 0207 361 7887