This paper examines the role streaming networks played in transforming the world of book-to-film adaptation. In 2013, Netflix debuted the first ever television show commissioned by a streaming service, House of Cards: a story inspired by Michel Dobb’s 1989 novel. From then on streaming services became a go-to source for backlist books looking for a second life and another chance at the bestsellers list. An analysis of book adaptations produced by streaming services alongside the subsequent New York Times bestsellers list shows that the freedom and creative liberties these companies have allowed in their adaptations has produced wildly successful projects with the potential to launch lesser-known books into prominence, often years after their initial publication.
Peer review is a systematic approach to assessing research. Although it is widely employed at academic institutions and generally held in high regard by the scientific community, many components of the system are poorly understood. The potential benefits to research are uncertain, which has prompted critics to question the veracity of the process, propose alternatives, and even consider abolishing it. Nevertheless, existing research demonstrates the practicality of peer review; the future of not only peer review, but science in general, will increasingly depend on humankind's ability to investigate not only what is measured in the external world, but also the means by which verifiable fact is established in the pursuit of knowledge.
Although many empirical studies have investigated whether open access increases citations, researchers have not reached a consensus regarding the issue. This study revisited the methodology for identifying the effects of open access and revealed the causes for contradictory conclusions using four indices for journals that transitioned from subscription to open access. The four indices are two citation scores along with the number of citations and number of articles for eight journals independently launched by leading publishers. Correlation coefficients were used to compare the time trends in the values of the four indices. Although the aggregated data of the eight journals indicated that open access had a positive effect, the effect varied across journals. A few journals produced different results between the two citation scores as well as between citation scores and number of citations or articles. Furthermore, a publisher’s choice of which journal to shift to open access influenced their performance after the shift. Therefore, results varied based on the choice of journals, indices, and types of data (aggregated vs. individual journals), leading to contradictory conclusions regarding open access advantages.
This research aims to analyze the persuasiveness of bookfluencers and the impact of content formats on their followers’ engagement and intention to purchase books. The theoretical framework for this study is the Elaboration Probability Model (ELM) adapted to social networks. The research used the Experimental Vignette Methodology (EVM) through a questionnaire launched to users of YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and via email to UEMC (Miguel de Cervantes European University) students. The data collected were treated statistically. The findings confirm the importance of argument quality in persuasive messages. The results highlight the significance of the audiovisual content format, both in the engagement and purchase intention, when followers process information through their central route.
Due to the large number of English speakers and heterogeneous subjectivities that constitute Canada, this paper examines the cultural diversity of the Canadian English-language publishing industry. It relies on information collected by Statistics Canada and Canadian Heritage, and by three trade associations. The Association of Canadian Publishers, The Literary Press Group, and The Publisher’s Archive. The present work also argues that book production and distribution, as well as federal government subsidies, are concentrated in urban Ontario, particularly in Toronto. In addition, it compares this information with that of the other two large English-speaking provinces, British Columbia and Alberta, to point out that the concentration of the publishing industry in urban areas harms cultural diversity. Finally, this paper suggests that, apart from supporting established publishers, government subsidies could foster emerging publishing projects.
A web-based survey of academic publishers was undertaken in 2021 by a team at Oxford International Centre for Publishing into the state of monograph publication in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. 25 publishing organisations responded, including many of the larger presses, representing approximately 75% of monograph output. Responses to the survey showed that the Covid 19 pandemic has accelerated the existing trend from print to digital dissemination and that Open Access (OA) titles receive substantially greater levels of usage than those published traditionally. Responses also showed that for most publishers OA publication stands at under 25% of output and that fewer than 10% of authors enquire about OA publication options. Continuing problem areas highlighted by respondents were the clearing of rights for OA publication and the standardisation of title and usage metadata. All responding organisations confirmed that they expect to be publishing monographs in ten years’ time, but that they anticipate the format and/or the model will be different, with open access expected to play a key part in the future, perhaps in the context of a mixed economy of OA and ‘toll access’ publication.
Streaming services are creating significant shifts in Scandinavia, with audiobooks distributed through subscription-based services accounting for about a quarter of sales in the Swedish and Norwegian book markets. In this study we ask: What are the common and diverging themes of trade talk on audiobooks and streaming services in Sweden and Norway? Our findings indicate that trade talk in the two countries differs distinctively. The differences suggest that discussions over audiobooks and streaming form two quite distinct discourses: A business and innovation discourse which is dominant in Sweden and a cultural policy discourse which is dominant in Norway.
Established in 1886, the International Publishers Association (IPA) is the world’s largest federation of national, regional, and specialist publishers’ associations. The IPA created the Freedom to Publish Committee (FtPC) to protect and promote the freedom to publish, without which unfettered publishing could not take place. This article details the work of the FtPC, its achievements and the challenges to freedom to publish it has identified. Data comes from the Committee’s 2020 Freedom to Publish report and subsequent case files, highlighting challenges publishers are facing, the greatest threats to freedom to publish, countries of concern, and the FtPC’s recommendations for future actions.
Audiobooks have recently become more prevalent in the publishing industry. Vietnam is a potential market for audiobook companies, and audiobook apps are soaring in popularity in this country. This study examines how consumers perceive audiobook apps’ consumption values, including functional value, social value, emotional value, epistemic value, and conditional value. Data were obtained from 1041 Vietnamese consumers using an online survey method. Results show that conditional value had the highest mean score, followed by epistemic value and emotional value. Notably, consumers hold negative perceptions of audiobook apps’ functional value, especially regarding their reliability and consistency. The findings also suggest that consumers will use audiobook apps more if there are more discounts, promotional benefits, and books available in the apps. This study is the first to explain how consumers perceive the different consumption values of audiobook apps, which have important implications for audiobook companies, publishers and app developers to promote audiobooks.
The Diverse BookFinder is a free online resource that provides data about thousands of picture books published since 2002 depicting Black and Indigenous people and People of Color. Using this data, this study looks at the publishing trends from 2015 to 2020 in terms of race/culture and unique categories developed by the Diverse BookFinder that identify how people in these books are depicted. This study found an increasing trend to publish books with illustrations of characters that are racially ambiguous, with no race or culture specified in the text (the Diverse BookFinder tags these characters as “Brown-Skinned and/or Race Unspecified”).
This paper reports on how accessibility is being slowly implemented in the current editorial and production workflows of Australian educational publishers. The findings follow from an online questionnaire commissioned by the Australian Publishers Association completed by 65 educational publishers. The paper shows that many publishers have started working on accessibility implementation, but some of them are still at the scoping stage. While many of the participants believe that the quality of “born-accessible” publication is better for all users, they are concerned about the amount of work and financial cost involved. Overall, publishers understand the need for accessibility implementation, but require further practical support and training. Publishers are also interested in working out the best workflows, timing and processes, and most cost-effective way of implementing accessibility.
This paper aims to examine the development of lesbian literature through a discussion of its history. From ancient Greek poetry, where we learn about the namesake of the term’s lesbian and sapphic, to the first half of the 1900s discussing the various authors that fought against censorship, continuing through to the 1950s to explore the genre that launched lesbian fiction into popularity, and finally addressing modern works of the last few decades. By critically examining significant events that have shaped the landscape of lesbian-themed works, we can gain an understanding of the profound effect these works have had on readers and writers alike.
Bibliometric parameters are now increasingly used in the evaluation of scientific research and researchers/authors. Over the years, different indices have been taken into consideration with the aim of “quantifying” different authors. A new index was recently defined, the Fi-index, with the aim of evaluate how much the h-index of a given author is influenced by his self-citations. The purpose of this work is to apply the Fi-index, not to the entire career of the author, as normally happens, but to the single paper in course of publication, so as to verify or certify that a specific manuscript does not affect the h-index or citations from the single author or authors. Fi-index tool score measure the impact of a paper on author career and it is obtained by a simple calculation that could be made with an online tool ( www.fident.eu/fidentresearch/fiindextool ). The use of fi-index tool could be useful as a guarantee parameter on a specific manuscript, obviously provided that a particular author could have a scientific research trend. It is hoped that this index will be used on a large scale for scientific publications affected by bibliometric parameters.
The study investigated on the influence of social networking services on social commerce most especially during the wide spread of the virus; Covid-19. Social media was globally in tune with the house lockdown as the pandemic kept spreading to more countries. The Pandemic made 5 billion people all around the world to stay indoors, living within the radius and diameter of their own houses, thus some of our daily needs and usage for domestic purposes were all made possible by the use of the internet. People either living with loved ones and family or some who did refrain themselves while they isolated. Isolating yourself from your immediate environment meant you receiving medical care from doctors who are also ensured to be well protected by wearing gloves and protective nose masks. The research thus, investigated on the buying and selling of various products and commodities on the cyber space. Rightly with the use of social networking services in social commerce and its usage most especially during the breakout of the covid-19 virus. This assertation requires empirical investigation. The study used the design of survey research type where students of the prestigious university of Ibadan, Nigeria were used as data. In this study, research questions were raised and answered in this study. The interference that can be drawn from the research is that the social networking services greatly enhances social commerce growth. Conclusion can be made that during the covid-19 pandemic, there was no decline in the social commerce of the nation as the tools of social networking services were fully in usage in every nook and cranny of the world. Where buyers met sellers and made sure items were delivered to each and every of their individual locations.
The popularity of Japanese comics or better known as manga had reach worldwide. The production of the manga had also led to the creation of derivative products such as animated series and doujinshi. However, most readers outside Japan accessed these media in a translated format that is published independently from the original publisher. As such, many of the readers might not know the distribution system of the original media. In this paper, we discussed the distribution of manga and doujinshi in Japan. These include discussions regarding the general overview of the manga industry, the different types of published manga and doujinshi, as well as their distribution system. Lastly, this paper also discussed briefly what is the unique characteristic of the Japanese manga and doujinshi industry.
Peer review underpins the integrity of the scientific archive and has done so for over 350 years. Over the past ten years or so, this integrity has come under pressure due to the introduction of predatory publishers and journals. Papers in predatory journals have, typically, not gone through robust peer review, if any at all. If these papers enter the scientific archive, its integrity will deteriorate. Moreover, legitimate journals will cite papers from predatory journals, which further dilutes the integrity of the scientific archive. The scholarly community has struggled to address the problems brought about by predatory publishers and journals. In this paper, we propose an approach, which draws on the fine art world. They use the concept of a catalogue raisonné to list all the validated work by a given artist and, by extension, identify fakes. A scholarly version will have some differences to the art discipline, but the central idea is the same. A publisher is analyzed, through a peer reviewed paper. This catalogue can be used by authors, and other stakeholders (e.g. librarians, promotion panels and hiring committees), to make more informed decisions.
Publons was a peer reviewer rewards platform that aimed to recognize the contribution that academics made during peer review to a journal. For about 10 years of its existence, Publons became the most popular service among peer reviewers. Having gained traction and popularity, Publons was purchased in 2017 by Clarivate Analytics (now Clarivate), and many academics, journals and publishers invested time and effort to participate in Publons. Using Publons, various peer review-related experiments or pilot programs were initiated by some academic publishers regarding the introduction of open peer review into their journals’ editorial processes. In this paper, we examine pertinent literature related to Publons, and reflect on its benefits and flaws during its short-lived history. In mid-August 2022, Clarivate fused Publons into the Web of Science platform. Publons, as a brand peer review service, has now ceased to exist but some of the functionality remains in Web of Science while other aspects that used to be open and free at Publons are now paid-for services. We reflect on the effect of such experiments, which initially had bold and ambitious academic objectives to fortify peer review, on academics’ trust, especially when such projects become commercialized.
In April 2022, a first-year PhD student published his first peer-reviewed article in the journal Qualitative Research. Less than four months later, amid viral public outrage, that article, Karl Andersson’s “I am not alone – we are all alone: Using masturbation as an ethnographic method in research on shota subculture in Japan,” was removed from publication and formally retracted by the Journal Editors. This paper explores the controversy surrounding the so-called “masturbation article” and its relevance to the field of publishing studies. I begin with a general overview of the shota manga genre and its legal context and provide a factual short history of the affair. I then demonstrate what a good-faith positive peer review of Andersson’s article may have included and critically assess Qualitative Research’s Retraction Notice, alongside other published ethical complaints. I conclude by showing how both Andersson’s article and the Japanese manga he studies have been censored for the same reasons, with troubling implications for freedom of speech in the twenty-first century.
This article explores the influence of platformization on literary publishing, focusing on the impact of audiobooks and streaming services on editorial processes and business objectives. Increased importance of some genres, sliding concepts of quality, increasing dependency on social media, diminishing economic margins, and stricter editorial decisions are transitioning traits highlighted in this study on Norwegian trade publishers. Further, the analysis brings forward three central challenges to today's publishers: dependence on digital platforms to obtain readership, favoring simple narrative structures countering broader catalogues, and increased press on prioritizing in a market characterized by customization.
On July 1, 2016, the US Department of Education’s “Rule 164” went into effect. This rule stipulated that: colleges “may include the costs of books and supplies as part of tuition and fees;” the books or supplies must be “below competitive market rates…” And a student may opt out of the program. This procedure became known as Inclusive Access (IA). The legality of IA was challenged in a series of 9 Federal Court cases; the plaintiffs argued that the defendants, college bookstores and college textbook publishers, violated the US antitrust laws. The lawsuits were consolidated into “In Re Inclusive Access Course Materials Antitrust Litig.; 20 MDL No. 2946, DCL; United States District Court Southern District of New York. On June 14, 2021, District Judge Denise Cote ruled in favor of the defendants, making IA legal in the US.
Publons currently has 1.7 million researchers on its database, who have registered 10.8 million reviews. The top ten Publons reviewers review at least one paper every 2 days. Three of the top ten reviewers have reviewed at least one paper every day since 2006 (resp. 2010 and 2013). That is, for the past 16 (resp. 12 and 9) years these reviewers have reviewed a paper every single day. If weekends, annual leave and public holidays are considered as days when reviews are not carried out, in their most productive year, the top ten reviewers, reviewed more than two papers every working day, with three reviewers carrying out 7.69, 5.08 and 4.71 reviews every working day in a given year. We also look at the publication record of the top ten Publons reviewers, concluding that it is strong. Finally, we discuss why these reviewers carry out the number of reviews that they do.
Based on interviews with 10 professionals from primary educational publishers and educational technology companies based in Australia, this article examines the challenges and impact of COVID-19 on publishing operations and outputs, and the future of the sector. The publishers had to deliver digital materials quickly, effectively and often for free to assist educators with the transition to remote learning, while working remotely themselves. They also had to transfers sales, support and professional learning online. Overall, while operationally challenging, the pandemic has accelerated the demand for digital products and facilitated growth of the sector.
The concept of #ownvoices writing has gained traction in contemporary publishing as both a genre of reader interest and a focus for debates about authors’ rights to write cross-culturally. This paper examines tensions the #ownvoices movement reveals between the commissioning, publishing, and critical reception of a book, using debate about Craig Silvey’s Honeybee, an Australian novel focalized through a young trans protagonist but written by a straight male author. Drawing on the theory of recognition, it analyzes author and publisher media interviews, social media, and literary reviews in mainstream publications, which are given context through with selected interviews with Australian publishers. Misrepresentation and appropriation are concerns for many readers, while judgements about aesthetic quality vary. Structures within the book industries limit the economic representation of diverse creators which, in turn, has implications for the diversity of experience represented in young adult fiction and its literary quality.
The study analyzes legal and illegal access to e-books in Lithuanian language as one of the small language publishing markets in order to better understand the digital transformation of books in Lithuania. The range of legally and illegally publicly available online e-books in Lithuanian language was identified and analyzed in few aspects, revealing the range of choice of legally and illegally available e-books in Lithuanian. The results showed that at the end of 2020, there were about 6 thousand in legal access and over 15 thousand in illegal access unique titles of e-books in Lithuanian language. Analysis of the data showed that only 10–25% of legal e-books have become illegally accessible. The rest is “published” by users of illegal websites themselves, mostly by scanning and OCRing printed books. Four main channels for accessing legal e-books have been identified: online bookstores, libraries, subscription service platforms, and academic online bookstores. Choice to read legal books on the screen in Lithuanian language is small, and illegal access channels offer several times larger choice of e-books. The decision of some large Lithuanian publishers not to publish (or publish only symbolically) e-books does not prevent them from appearing in illegal access, and readers who are becoming more and more accustomed to reading on the screen are likely to encourage the demand and emergence of illegal supply.
Bibliometric is a field of study applied to the various scientific disciplines, in recent years, thanks to the digitalization of the scientific and academic world, these data have become increasingly accessible and reliable. Unfortunately, in the scientific field there is a race for bibliometric values, and these could often be influenced by the authors themselves. After a description of what the h-hindex is, and its calculation, it is proposed to evaluate how much self-citations can influence this value. The resulting formula shows results that give us objective information on how much the h-index of a particular author has been influenced by his self-citations, the Fi-index (from Greek ϕ or phi or f), by its author. This value could also be used in the future as a bibliometric parameter and to evaluate the reliability of this value, as well as of an author.
The aim of this paper is to examine the publication trajectories of the most productive scholars in communication and media studies between 2015 and 2019. Based on the analysis of 1482 papers of the top-publishing one hundred communication scholars, we identified 126 Scopus-indexed journals in which leading scholars publish, and also examine the main publication clusters. Our results suggest that amongst the most productive authors, quantity does not go to the detriment of quality as the most prolific scholars usually publish in the most prestigious journals of the field. Besides defining thematic clusters, we also identified the most important networks of journals that are the most popular amongst prolific researchers.
Between 2009 and 2012, Jeffrey Beall analyzed 18 publishers, which were publishing 1328 journals. He classified all but one of the publishers as predatory. In this paper we look again at these publishers to see what has changed since that initial analysis. We focus on the same 18 publishers so that we have a direct comparison with Beall’s original analysis. One publisher has been acquired by Sage (the publisher no longer exists) and another has been acquired by Taylor & Francis (the publisher still retains its identity). Three of the publishers can no longer be found and, of the thirteen that remain, they now publish 1650 journals, an increase of 24.25% over the 1328 journals being published when Beall carried out his analysis. Other ways of carrying out this analysis, could put this increase as high as 50.14%. The increase in the number of journals being published, by fewer publishers, suggests that the problem of predatory publishing is getting worse, although this may be largely due to mega-predatory publishers which have dramatically increased the number of journals they now publish, when compared to ten years ago. Unlike Beall, rather than classifying the publishers as predatory (or not), we classify them into four categories, using data which is publicly available, rather than making a subjective decision. Two publishers are classified as category 1 (the most reputable). One journal is in category 2, four in category 3 and six in category 4.
Little publicity is given in mathematics to journal organization and maintaining correctness of the literature. However, worrisome policies of editorial handling and peer review are exercised in mathematical academia. They originate both from modern trends (like automatization) and from a traditionally and widely spread complacent and idle attitude in academic circuits.
This article displays such policies on the basis of specific instances and the reaction these practices lead to when issues about correctness of published mathematics are raised. It is drawn on concrete cases, which are crucial to understanding the cause of problems, and hence also possible approaches to solutions.
The general goal of this work is to carry out a bibliometric analysis of the scientific production in the publishing industry between 2012 and 2022. For this purpose, the following research posed the following questions: (i) what are the leading academic publications that collect scientific production around the publishing industry? (ii) who are the most productive and influential authors in research on the publishing industry? (iii) from which countries do the published academic works come?, and (iv) in which universities are research on the publishing industry concentrated? This research used the information available in Scopus to address this bibliometric analysis. The analysis conducted in this work is exploratory, descriptive, and quantitative, based on the techniques and tools of bibliometric analysis of the documents stored in the Scopus bibliographic database. This article highlights that research on the global book publishing market is interdisciplinary and, therefore, highly cross-cutting. The economic dimension of the publishing process, and the history and culture of the book dominated the study subjects. There is also a growing trend of research on the impact of new technologies on the value chain and book distribution, without forgetting the increasing studies on new business models in the publishing industry.
It is highly fashionable today to project either a very negative or a very positive image of the Middle Ages. The invention of the printing press has hence often been associated with a radical change in literature, religion, politics, and generally the public media. Indeed, we can observe an imminent paradigm shift, ultimately leading, above all, to the Protestant Reformation, which would not have been possible without the printing press. However, technological revolutions do not necessarily transform the Zeitgeist or the history of mentality, the general value systems, and hence the fundamental concepts of literature. Although many medieval romances and heroic epics were soon eclipsed by new types of prose novels, for instance, printed and sold on the early modern book markets, in many other cases the medieval narratives, such as the various versions of the Melusine novel and the jest narratives of Till Eulenspiegel, experienced an astounding afterlife and renewed interests through the printed versions, and this far into the seventeenth century. This article does not intend to diminish the huge impact of the printing press on late medieval culture, but wants to qualify further and discriminate more in detail what really changed and what remained the same within the history of literature. Both the narratives discussed here and their accompanying woodcuts demonstrate a smooth continuation of late medieval topics well into the early modern period.
This paper examines the potential effects of the lack of diversity in children’s books on young readers, with an emphasis on the Latine/o/a/x community. Utilizing personal experience, market statistics, case studies, and educational research, this paper provides a holistic understanding of the sociological and psychological damage that can be caused when children do not see themselves positively represented in the media they consume. Whether through a complete lack of representation, negative stereotypes, or issues of authenticity, this paper explores why and how these issues directly impact a child’s self-esteem. In an effort to combat this issue and create substantive change, potential solutions are suggested and encouraged to readers from all walks of life.
![ELM adapted to the bookfluencers’ context. Source own elaboration from Petty and Cacioppo [27], Teng et al. [33] and Shahab et al. [32]](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/368787099/figure/fig1/AS:11431281122358332@1677295437774/ELM-adapted-to-the-bookfluencers-context-Source-own-elaboration-from-Petty-and-Cacioppo_Q320.jpg)
