OIPA Symposium Spotlight – Brown University Digital Publications: New Approaches to Collaboration

OIPA Symposium Spotlight – Brown University Digital Publications: New Approaches to Collaboration

Allison Levy, Director of Brown University Digital Publications , builds upon their lightning talk at the 2025 OIPA Symposium.

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Brown University Digital Publications, launched in 2015 with generous support from the Mellon Foundation, creates exciting new conditions for the production and sharing of knowledge by advancing scholarship in ways not achievable in a conventional print format. Making innovative use of the online environment, multimodal monographs advance core arguments and narratives through multimedia content, nonlinear navigation, interactivity, and increased reader agency, among other digital affordances. Through open-access publishing models, these new scholarly forms are increasing the visibility and reach of humanities scholarship to global audiences both within and beyond the academy in unprecedented ways.

What started as a grant-funded experiment to support Brown University humanities faculty is now an established library-based program with a robust and varied portfolio that continues to grow in scope and impact. Yet behind the big ideas and bold innovations is a relatively small team of four full-time staff members, two on the editorial side and two on the design/content side, each bringing unique skills, experiences, and perspectives to a shared vision: readiness to challenge conventional thought, willingness to reconsider conventional workflows, and preparedness to figure it out along the way – and as a team. Colleagues across the Brown Library contribute to digitization work, copyright matters, and technological issues. Outside vendors support editorial and design workflows as needed and join the core team with the same spirit of collaboration that defines every aspect of BUDP’s work. Finally, university press partners are critical to the enterprise, ensuring that cutting-edge born-digital scholarship undergoes rigorous peer review and reaches its intended audience.

Opportunities for full project support are extended to non-Brown authors through the On Seeing book series, a BUDP-MIT Press collaboration that centers underrepresented perspectives and understudied questions about how we see, comprehend, and participate in the visual world. A critical goal of this hybrid series is to mobilize knowledge creation and sharing via a multiplicity of forms, as a means of fostering inclusivity and expanding access to the work. In addition to a print book, an open access digital edition produced by BUDP ensures the work will reach the widest possible readership. The multimodal edition features uniquely digital content, including a community engagement toolkit tailored to each specific volume.

In support of Indigenous voices, BUDP is collaborating with the University of Guam Press on a Mellon-funded exploration of the best approaches and practices for creating a digital scholarly publishing program in Micronesia. In addition to co-producing a pilot publication on Indigenous Micronesian seafaring and navigation, the partner institutions are documenting protocols for the receiving and sharing of Indigenous and traditional knowledge on a born-digital platform. The work is guided by elders and community leaders to ensure the knowledge is shared respectfully and appropriately.  

As models of reimagined forms of scholarship begin to proliferate, BUDP also works to catalyze opportunities for more scholars and communities to innovate and effect change. Purposeful training and mentoring programs expand the range of voices and viewpoints represented in the practice and production of digital publications, ultimately impacting a global, diverse readership.

Born-Digital Scholarly Publishing: Resources and Roadmaps, a National Endowment for the Humanities Institute on Advanced Topics in the Digital Humanities, has twice supported up to 15 scholars who wish to pursue interpretive projects that require digital expression, but may lack the necessary resources and capacity at their home institutions. First offered in 2022 and again in 2024 (both institutes achieved a majority participation of scholars from Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Hispanic-serving institutions, Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-serving institutions, and community colleges, as well as emeriti faculty and independent scholars), the three-week program offered in-depth knowledge of the digital publishing process, familiarity with open source tools and platforms, advanced project management skills, concrete and individualized plans for project advancement, and top-level publishing industry contacts. The full curriculum is publicly available on the institutewebsite, which serves as a knowledge base for born-digital scholarly publishing. 

In 2024, Brown University Library received a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services to establish a cross-organizational training and support program for library professionals from HBCUs seeking to gain or expand expertise in developing open access born-digital scholarship. The University of Michigan Press collaborates with BUDP to mentor the cohort and, via an open access publishing model, disseminate HBCU-generated peer-reviewed digital publications to the broadest possible audience for the greatest possible impact. This expansive cross-organizational approach to training is building capacity at HBCU libraries while providing extended author support throughout the digital publication process.

Both the NEH- and IMLS-funded interventions developed by BUDP address equity issues that persist in scholarly publishing by establishing models for academics everywhere to contribute to scholarly discourse. Additionally, press directors and acquisitions editors, who made up 60 percent of the NEH Institute faculty, gained a greater understanding of the rapidly growing author interest in pursuing multimodal publications, as well as the specialized editorial support required to bring these projects to publication. In 2025, the Society for Scholarly Publishing recognized BUDP with the silver Excellence in Publishing, Information Technology & Communications (EPIC) Award. This significant industry award spotlights BUDP’s promotion of inclusive practices, equitable access, and meaningful representation within scholarly publishing. 

In conclusion, BUDP is pushing the boundaries of what scholarly publishing can be through innovative practice and leadership. Its pioneering approach to born-digital multimodal publishing is helping to set the standards for the future of scholarship while prioritizing access, equity, and inclusion.