portal: Libraries and the Academy 2013 Johns Hopkins University Press Award for Best Article

The portal: Libraries and the Academy Board of Editors Awards Committee is pleased to announce that “The Future Role of Publishing Services in University Libraries,” featured in the October 2012, Volume 12, Number 4 issue, has been awarded the 2013 Johns Hopkins University Press Award for the best article appearing in portal in the 2012 volume, http://muse.jhu.edu. After an independent review of all articles published over the year, this article was selected as the ninth annual recipient. Written by Tyler Walters, Dean of University Libraries at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, this article comes at a time when academic libraries are at the point of adopting publishing as a standard service with all its staffing and infrastructural implications. The committee’s citation notes that “Walters has done a very substantial examination, exploring both the practical and theoretical aspects of the topic—it is almost a textbook case, a thorough synthesis of the state of the field while also speculating about future models.” The use of scenario planning is an original approach to examining the subject, a set of services that reflect the convergence of technology; economic, policy, and cultural environments; and issues related to digital publishing. Participants in the study helped pinpoint critical success factors, cooperative business models, and new skills needed as libraries take on publishing roles. Walters’ work is thoroughly researched and methodologically sound; it builds on the most recent literature and extends it significantly.

The criteria used in the selection process for this award included the quality of research methodology, the extent to which the article places library issues in a broader academic or higher education context, the extent to which the article makes a significant contribution to the literature or the advancement of knowledge, its timeliness, originality, and the overall quality of writing. The Editorial Board is pleased to emphasize the need for visionary approaches to major professional concerns that require significant investment of resources, have a fundamental role in shaping scholarly communication, and that have an impact on access to information at every stage from creation to dissemination to archiving. In addition to the Johns Hopkins University Press Award, the author will receive a five hundred dollar cash prize.