Earlier this year, Avi Staiman, CEO of Academic Language Experts, interviewed Chris Harrison, Publishing Development Director of Humanities and Social Sciences at Cambridge University Press on new and creative models of academic publications that scholars should be aware of that extend beyond the classic manuscript and journal article. This is the second of a three-part series resulting from that interview. The first part can be found here. You can also watch the full recording of the interview, held on March 22, 2021 as part of the Academic Language Experts ‘Publication Success Interview Series’.

Part 2: What makes the Cambridge Elements series unique

Avi: Can you tell us about what ‘Elements’ is?

Chris: We thought it would be interesting to see if we could describe a format which does not pigeonhole manuscripts as either a book or a journal. We came up with this generic title of ‘Elements’ and ‘Cambridge Elements.’ This is our hybrid books and journals format where we try to combine the best of books and journals.

Avi: As you are trying to get the word out about this opportunity for a new way of publishing, what are some of the biggest challenges you face in trying to educate an academic public and academic institutions that are not always the most adept to change?

Chris: The first challenge was to get people to understand what we were talking about, describing something which did not exist. We wanted to follow the journals world of organizing the content in series, so our first step was to interest potential series editors to start new series. This challenge was surprisingly easy because so many people had seen that frustration and were longing for this mid-form content. Senior professors from top research universities joined us. It was a leap of faith and part of a pioneering effort which we hoped could be quite transformative in the world of academic scholarship.

We started with a proof of concept in a small number of subject areas, particularly in politics and philosophy, just as a road test. We found the response positive, and we rolled it out across the full spectrum. We now have over 130 series across the spectrum of the arts and sciences; everything from ancient Egypt to cutting-edge electronic engineering, and that is an indication that we have tapped into a real thirst.

Stage one was getting the series editors on board, and the next was to persuade people to write content. We have been pleased with the response and have had 400 Elements published and another 800 under contract. Contributors from all around the world range from early-career through established tenured professors.

Avi: Can you give us a few examples of what you took from books and what you took from journals to give people a more concrete idea of what they would be reading or looking at when they would see an Elements piece?

Chris: From the journals world we took the organization as a series, and from the books world the reinforcing message around quality assurance and peer review. Elements have both an ISSN and an ISBN. If you look at the page format, it resembles a journal with an abstract, keywords, and corresponding author, but then when you read and see the way that authors have the space to write, you appreciate the space of developed arguments and how their work is situated in the wider literature.

There is a word limit of 20,000 – 30,000 words, which is more concise than what you would find in books. We are still in the stage of not wanting to say that we either are a book or a journal. We are saying that we are a mid-form with aspects which are very familiar from the journals world and the books world.

Avi: What is the submission process like? Is it more similar to a book with a proposal and a prospectus or is it more similar to a journal article? And is there an Open Access option?

Chris: It is neither a book submission process nor a journal submission process. Series editors will invite or receive unsolicited proposals. At the first stage, we expect to see a two or three-page prospectus and we have templates and guidelines about what information we want. When a series editor is happy with a prospectus, they share that with the Cambridge editor just to check that everybody is onboard. At that stage we will issue a contract, but the publication itself will be conditional on the full manuscript going through a peer review process. We set the author up in an online submission system. As in the journal world, we use ScholarOne.

Once they have been accepted at the early prospective stage, we do not expect to see many rejections. The review process is rigorous and almost all of them go through ‘revise and resubmit’, but we do not have as many rejections at that stage as you would have in a journal process. In that sense, it is closer to the books world, but everything goes via the series editors rather than the in-house Cambridge editor, unlike with books.

As to open access we have gold open access rates which we advertise. It is a growing number, but in addition, I would highlight that we have a very permissive green open access policy so that there are no embargoes on time for posting submitted manuscripts. We wanted to ensure accessibility of content, so we make all Elements content completely free to access for two weeks after its first publication online.

Avi: Scholars working on interdisciplinary research face a unique challenge in publishing their research because it does not fit into the aims and scopes of any one particular journal. Does the Elements series encourage interdisciplinary pieces, or does it focus on one specific area?

Chris: Regarding specialization, we do not want the extra word count that is available in Elements to be used to pad out a journal article. We want to use that space to allow scholars to present their own original research and to situate it in a wider context of literature (although some are surveys).

The series editors find a sweet spot that is appropriate for their discipline between original research of the author and reporting on the author’s personalized view. We found that the Elements concept particularly resonates in interdisciplinary areas where it is much more difficult for people to find the appropriate outlets for their work in the existing journals and book series.

Avi: What do metrics show regarding how many people are reading the published material? Should this be taken into consideration regarding when and where it might be worthwhile to publish research, or is this out of a scholar’s control?

Chris: Everybody wants their work to be read, discussed, debated, and cited. As we move into a digital world, we emphasize usage as much as physical sales. The publishing industry is getting better at providing ways of seeing metrics of usage, downloads, and views and how many times the content is cited in social and mainstream media.

Avi: Are Elements published in digital or hard copy formats?

Chris: All Elements are published in both digital and print. The print is an inexpensive print-on-demand paperback, and the digital is available on Kindle, in libraries, and on other platforms.

Avi: What are the main areas of interest and the most developed fields?

Chris: We cover the full spectrum of the arts and sciences. We have particular concentrations in areas of philosophy, political science, linguistics, and increasingly in history and music literature. It is a broad spectrum and we’re adding new series all the time.

Avi: Will my published Elements article be an independent piece or part of a bigger series?

Chris: Articles are self-standing pieces but published within the framework of a series.

Avi: What is the average length of an Elements piece?

Chris: 20,000 – 30,000 words is our target word length. We do not want to slip into the world of short books. This gives people more space than they would have in a journal but does not allow for a short monograph.

Avi: What is the best way for a prospective author to contact the Elements staff?

Chris: Each Element series has a web-landing page with contact details for the series editors. The submission process is similar to journals via the academic series editors rather than the in-house Cambridge staff.

Avi: What does the post-submission review process look like?

Chris: There is an initial review by the editorial board based on their prospectus and a contract is offered at that stage. The completed submitted manuscript is reviewed by rigorous single-blind refereeing. The most common outcome is: revise and resubmit.

Avi: How is Elements recognized by tenure committees and senior academics?

Chris: The suggested citation is as a book. Anecdotal evidence indicates that tenure committees recognize it and are impressed by it.