The past and future of digital publishing

Tim Lockridge

doi:10.1016/j.compcom.2026.103002

Computers and Composition Jun 2026 Open Access

The past and future of digital publishing

Tim Lockridge Miami University

Abstract

The story of digital publishing in Writing Studies is one of innovation, collaboration, and do-it-yourself spirit. The field's digital publication venues emerged alongside the birth of the World Wide Web, and scholars used those venues to experiment with the possibilities of publishing in digital spaces. Visionary editors built journals with just a university server and a call for papers, and that creative spirit expanded the form and possibilities of scholarly communication. This article extends that work through the concept of “reader-choice publishing,” an approach that privileges reader needs and preferences by distributing scholarly texts in multiple open formats: HTML, PDF, and EPUB. Through a reader-choice approach, writers and publishers ask, “How will the reader use this text?” “What affordances do they need?” “What tradeoffs will they accept, and how might a single text be offered in multiple ways to offset those tradeoffs as the reader's needs and contexts change?” This article situates the reader-choice approach alongside a history of digital publishing in the field, acknowledging the past while pointing to a more usable future.

Journal: Computers and Composition
Published: 2026-06-01
DOI: 10.1016/j.compcom.2026.103002
CompPile
Open Access: OA PDF Hybrid
Topics: collaborative writing editorial matter
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The past and future of digital publishing

Abstract

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (0)

References (32) · 4 in this index

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