The Archipelago of Multimedia Publishing

As academic publishing turns more and more toward peer-to-peer review, multimedia-rich work, and publication of data sets, the Vega team is developing a modular, open-source platform that can accommodate a broader range of publishing models that scholars and practitioners want to and can publish. Vega will be a free, editorial-management platform that supports peer review, copy-editing, and publication of multimedia-rich and data-driven scholarship and creative works in all areas of research. With the support of an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grant, Vega is being designed with a unique editorial workflow that recognizes and values the importance of screen-based multimedia research, including digital humanities projects and electronic literature. What many journals and presses that publish this kind of work lack is an editorial management system that will move a piece of scholarly multimedia through the submission, review, and production processes as a single, scholarly entity. I will discuss the platform, its authorial and editorial features, and welcome questions and comments from an audience of potential users of Vega, which is only part-way through its first year of a three-year development cycle.