With an increasing number of scholars, we believe that open collaboration is a valuable component of knowledge production.[1] Because of this, we have put the first version of An Anthropocene Primer online. We are inviting teachers, researchers, and learners—whether they are in museums, academia, government, or beyond—to help us refine it. We are looking for thoughtful, constructive critique. We’re also hoping that the text can spur conversation in its margins, and we look forward to participating in open dialogue with you.
The text goes online on October 23, 2017 as our contribution to Open Access Week. Indiana University Press has kindly agreed to review the book for publication, and we intend to integrate your comments into the second version of the book, which will be available as both an open access and a print-on-demand text.
The system that we are using to facilitate online conversation is Hypothes.is. Hypothes.is is an amazing system, which allows users to annotate online texts. Using it is simple. You can link to the video tutorial here.
We are indebted to the early work in open peer book review by scholars such as Kathleen Fitzpatrick, Jack Dougherty, Kristen Nawrotzki, and Tennyson O’Donnell.[2] An Anthropocene Primer builds on the concepts that Jason M. Kelly and Tim Hitchcock proposed in relation to their work on History Working Papers and the Open Scholarship Project.[3] The book also conforms to the open access publication ethos of the Rivers of the Anthropocene project, which will publish an open access edited volume, Rivers of the Anthropocene, with University of California Press in December 2018.
[1] Tony Ross-Hellauer, “What Is Open Peer Review? A Systematic Review,” F1000Research 6 (August 31, 2017).
[2] Jack Dougherty and Kristen Nawrotzki, Writing History in the Digital Age (Trinity College and University of Michigan Press, 2012); Jack Dougherty and Tennyson O’Donnell, eds., Web Writing: Why and How for Liberal Arts Teaching and Learning (University of Michigan Press, 2015); Kathleen Fitzpatrick, Planned Obsolescence (New York: NYU Press, 2009) .
[3] Tim Hitchcock and Jason M. Kelly, “Reinventing the Academic Journal: The ‘Digital Turn’, Open Access, & Peer Review,” History Workshop Online, April 22, 2013; Jason M. Kelly, “Open Access and the Historical Profession,” Digital Sandbox, August 12, 2013.