Panel

TWO PANELS on Academic Publishing on (Southeast) Asian Studies
Convened by Gerald Jackson, Paul H. Kratoska and Marie Lenstrup

Details

1) Double session: Roundtable on Publishing Revolutions
Academic publishing used to be a gentle world where authors of specialized treatises worked with editors with an abiding commitment to academic quality over commercial concerns. Their relationships were facilitated by subventions from universities to their affiliated presses, and by reliably large orders from university libraries. But this happy state of affairs is a thing of the past.
In part one, the roundtable discussion will take as its starting point presentations focused on the challenges facing publishers (and thus also authors) in a time of sharply contracting library budgets and a global crisis in financial confidence. Topics will include the effect of financial pressures on editorial decisions, the arguments for specialization versus diversification, the particular challenges and realities of publishing in Asia, the shifting balance between journals and books in academic discourse, and the rise and fall of various consumer groups.
In part two, the panel will explore the hot issues that promise – or perhaps threaten? – to transform the face of academic publishing. This entails a discussion of related issues: Open Access and author-pays publishing; copyright and Creative Commons; the impact of global initiatives such as Google Books and content aggregators; electronic publishing as a parallel or alternative to print publishing; the rapid development and improvement of Print-on-Demand technology; self-publishing; and using Web 2.0 as both an editorial and marketing tool.

2) Double session: Publishers’ Master Class and Clinic for Young Scholars
Making it into (peer-reviewed) print for the first time is one of the great hurdles of academic life, and one that is becoming increasingly difficult to clear as publishers are forced to focus ever more firmly on the bottom line. The aim of this double session is to provide a forum for Asian studies publishers to support young scholars in this endeavour by offering practical advice.
The first part of the session will consist of short presentations (10-15 minutes each) on subjects that should be of interest to all potential authors, such as:
• how to identify the publisher best suited for a particular book project
• how to prepare a book proposal and present it to a publisher
• how presses handle the peer-review process and editorial decision-making
• how to prepare a manuscript for production
• what to expect during the production process
While these presentations aim to prepare young scholars for such practical issues, an important element is to explain the background for the advice given so that the net result is a better understanding of the inner workings of the academic publishing industry. This should give authors a greater chance of navigating the publication process to achieve a successful result.
The second ‘clinic’ part of the session is open for the audience to bring up questions and concerns relating to their specific projects or plans. The presenters will aim to answer these questions clearly and at the same time extrapolate from the specific issues to more general concerns affecting many, most, or all (potential) authors.

To propose a paper or join the panel for either of these sessions, please contact
Gerald Jackson, NIAS Press, University of Copenhagen, Denmark (gerald@nias.ku.dk)\
Paul H. Kratoska, NUS Press. National University of Singapore (kratoska@nus.edu.sg)
Marie Lenstrup, Asian Studies Book Services. Netherlands (marie@asianstudiesbooks.com)