2 April 2012 | 12:00-1:30pm
Nevil Classroom, Penn Museum, 3260 South Street

Josie Dixon
Publishing Consultant

Debates about the future of scholarly publishing are not new, and the research monograph in the humanities has long been a particular concern. Yet the sense of crisis has sharpened in recent years. Digital media continue to offer new opportunities but may also have introduced as many problems as they have solved. In this wide-ranging lecture, Josie Dixon reviews the state of the market and considers the business survival strategies that scholarly publishers have developed. Other topics concern the new challenges digital technology has created, as well as some of the fundamental questions surrounding copyright, access, and intellectual property. Participants will better understand the market and conditions in which publishers operate, and how this affects the reception of publishing proposals.

This special lecture is open to Penn faculty, postgrads, and graduate students. Please bring your own questions and concerns.

As head of Lucian Consulting, Josie Dixon is an experienced training consultant who specializes in running workshops for scholars in the humanities and social sciences, with a particular focus on how to publish research, write and present conference papers, and improve research communication skills.

Dixon has over 40 university clients in the UK, as well as others in Europe and the United States. She also has clients in the publishing industry, where she gives training workshops on commissioning, management, and strategy. She was previously publishing director for the Academic Division at Palgrave Macmillan and before that spent eleven years in commissioning and managerial roles at Cambridge University Press.