Beyond the Flow. Scholarly Publications During and After the Digital

The PhD analyses the history of scholarly digital publication formats from 1995 to present day. Such a history is perceived of as an entanglement between epistemological traditions of disciplines that are involved, technological innovation and an ongoing debate about the 'true nature' of digital technologies. The wealth and heterogeneity of such formats is outstanding. In contrast, their impact and sustainability is limited even after 22 years. Consequently, many contributors to the field complain that the PDF is still the most successful digital publication format which exist. The goal of writing a history of digital scholarly publication formats in the way that has been mentioned is the attempt to find insights in this history which may help to develop more successful solutions in the future. One major claim is that too much attention in this research field is given to a comparison of digital technologies with the advent of the printing press. Instead, digital scholarly publishing should be conceived of as something completely unique. A history of digital scholarly publication formats will help to take a fresh look at this development.