13. Experimental Publishing Group
Copim’s Experimental Publishing Group are researching ways to more closely align existing software, tools and technologies, workflows and infrastructures for experimental publishing with the workflows of open access book publishers.
The Experimental Publishing Group maintain the Experimental Publishing Compendium which acts as a valuable guide and catalogue for those seeking to experiment with the form, content, and practice of scholarly publishing by listing various tools, practices, and examples that can help inform experimental publishing.
They are also conducting experimental book pilots, working with publishers, authors and open-source platform providers to foster and encourage practices of experimentation and reuse.
- Experimental Publishing Compendium
- Reports on experimental scholarly book publishing
- Pilot project documentation and seminars
Experimental Publishing Compendium
The Experimental Publishing Compendium is a guide and reference for scholars, publishers, developers, librarians, and designers who want to challenge, push and redefine the shape, form and rationale of scholarly books. The compendium brings together tools, practices, and books to promote the publication of experimental scholarly works.
You can access the Compendium at https://compendium.copim.ac.uk/
In the first year after its launch, the Compendium was nominated for the DH Awards 2023 in the category Best DH Tool or Suite of Tools. See http://dhawards.org/dhawards2023/voting/ for further details.
As part of Open Book Futures, we are developing a governance model to sustain the Compendium long-term. The scoping report for this work is available at https://copim.pubpub.org/pub/compendiumgovernancescoping/
There is a video walkthrough of the Experimental Publishing Compendium available on the Internet Archive at https://archive.org/details/Experimental_Publishing_Compendium_walkthrough.
Reports on experimental scholarly book publishing
The Experimental Publishing Group have produced several reports on the landscape of experimental scholarly book publishing:
- Books Contain Multitudes: Exploring Experimental Publishing: https://doi.org/10.21428/785a6451.933fa904
- Promoting and Nurturing Interactions with Open Access Books: Strategies for Publishers and Authors: https://doi.org/10.21428/785a6451.2d6f4263
- Books Contain Multitudes: Exploring Experimental Publishing (2022 update): https://doi.org/10.21428/785a6451.1792b84f
Pilot project documentation and seminars
The Experimental Publishing Group run experimental book pilot projects with authors and publishers to pioneer new ways of publishing scholarly work. The documentation of these pilot projects can be found on our section of the Open Book Futures PubPub site: https://copim.pubpub.org/experimental-publishing-group
In 2024 and 2025, the Experimental Publishing Group and the Centre for Postdigital Cultures’ Post-Publishing research strand are presenting a seminar series for for those interested in experimental scholarly book publishing throughout 2024 and 2025. Read more and register at https://compendium.copim.ac.uk/practice_seminars where you can also see recordings of our previous seminars in the series.