Overview

The Discourse of Scholarly Communication recontextualizes the place and purpose of scholarship within the context of the Enlightenment. Patrick Gamsby argues that while Enlightenment/enlightenment is often used in the mottos of numerous academic institutions, its historical, social, and philosophical elements are largely obscured. Using a theoretical lens, Gamsby revisits the ideals of the Enlightenment alongside the often contradictory issues of disciplinary boundaries, access to research, academic labor in the production of scholarship (author, peer reviewer, editor, and translator), the interrelationship of form and content (lectures, textbooks, books, and essays), and the stewardship of scholarship in academic libraries and archives. It is ultimately argued that for the betterment of the scholarly communication ecosystem and the betterment of society, anti-Enlightenment rules of scholarship such as ‘publish or perish’ should be dispensed with in favor of the formulation of a New Enlightenment.

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9781666922615

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Reviews

In this critical theory of the academic text, Patrick Gamsby offers a deeply informative disquisition on this distinctive form. Much is made of earlier scholars' insights into their own practices, with a spotlight on twentieth-century postmodernists. Gamsby also enlivens the book's breadth by thoughtfully engaging with current issues, from open access to review quality, in ways that promise to advance scholarship's efforts to serve learning and humankind.

In this critical theory of the academic text, Patrick Gamsby offers a deeply informative disquisition on this distinctive form. Much is made of earlier scholars' insights into their own practices, with a spotlight on twentieth-century postmodernists. Gamsby also enlivens the book's breadth by thoughtfully engaging with current issues, from open access to review quality, in ways that promise to advance scholarship's efforts to serve learning and humankind. --John Willinsky, Stanford University

Author Information

Patrick Gamsby is scholarly communications librarian at Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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