Introduction. Publishing Eco-system: International Journal of Publishing Studies

Abstract

The decision to give birth to a new scientific journal requires quite an assumption of responsibility, above all during a historical period in which there is a considerable proliferation of specialist titles in various sectors of knowledge. Although the world of publishing and, more generally, book culture is often the subject of studies and conferences, both in Italy and elsewhere, a periodical was lacking that could accurately and unconditionally assess what is happening in the world of books; a space to analyse new and modern methodological approaches adopted in publishing in relation to their more or less ambitious objectives.
Hence the idea of starting a journal in open access format that could over time record reflections on numbers and data, which are often read exclusively in relation to current conditions. The objective was to start a new periodical for the discussion of different and mutually integrated aspects of the production, distribution, and communication of the book in different spheres, with a particular focus on the mechanisms that help bring the book to the reader and the frameworks constructed by relationships between promoters, distributors, marketeers, librarians, and booksellers: increasingly protagonists of rapid changes and generators of new demands. The intention is to reflect on all of this, and evaluate the data not in their immediate context, but in the medium-to-long term; to consider whether and how changes have taken place; to invite the protagonists to explain changes, selections and decisions once an author’s text has entered the cultural programme of a publishing house.