“Parcours numériques” 2014-2018: Looking Back and Looking Forward

With Marcello Vitali-Rosati

22nd International Conference on Electronic Publishing, University of Toronto

June 23, 2018

Launched in 2014, the series “Parcours numériques” was an attempt to offer an alternative publishing model that combined print and electronic publishing, as well as promoting open access while still maintaining a range of funding revenues to be economically sustainable. The idea was to think of new ways to have two different yet complimentary versions of the same book. The print version (also available in a homothetic version in PDF or ePub) would be a linear, short essay, with minimal or ideally no scholarly apparatus (notes, images, etc) present. The electronic version would contain the original text with not only “standard” supplementary materials one would have expected in the print version but everything that was unique to a web-based environment, namely the opportunity to include videos, audio commentaries, links to external sites, etc. With nine books now published, and two more forthcoming in 2018, it is fair to say that my co-series editor, Marcello Vitali-Rosati, and I have successfully demonstrated to our readers and the press the value of such a series.

This poster will present the challenges of implementing this series in a traditional, university press, along with the lessons learned, both from our work with authors and with the relevant data from our platform and sales to analyze the successes and difficulties of our new hybrid model. It will also put forward the idea of exporting the publishing model behind “Parcours numériques” to scholarly editions. It will suggest the ways scholarly editions can continue to exist in print with new electronic features built not only in an online version but also into the print version.

(The collection can be found at http://parcoursnumeriques-pum.ca)

This content has been updated on June 7, 2018 at 13 h 12 min.