Brown University Digital Publications has won SILVER at the EPIC Awards presented by the Society for Scholarly Publishing in the Diversity, Equity, Inclusivity, or Accessibility (DEIA) Initiatives category.
Providence, R.I. [Brown University] Launched this year by the Society for Scholarly Publishing, the EPIC Awards (Excellence in Publishing, Information Technology & Communications) celebrate the remarkable achievements of teams and individuals who are advancing scholarly communication through innovation, creativity, dedication, and collaboration. Selected from over 90 entries, Brown University Library’s born-digital publication program promotes inclusive practices, equitable access, and meaningful representation within scholarly publishing.
This significant industry recognition highlights “Born-Digital Scholarly Publishing: Resources and Roadmaps,” a National Endowment for the Humanities Institute on Advanced Topics in the Digital Humanities designed to support scholars from all career levels and across humanistic disciplines who wish to develop multimodal scholarship but may lack the necessary resources and capacity at their home institutions. The institute addressed equity issues endemic to academic publishing by establishing models for enhanced support for underrepresented voices to enrich and expand scholarly discourse through their contributions. Taking a holistic approach, the institute combined the concentrated delivery of foundational knowledge and practical resources with hands-on, individualized developmental editing workshops. Participants gained familiarity with open source tools and platforms, advanced project management skills, concrete and individualized plans for project advancement, and top-level publishing industry contacts.
By demystifying and streamlining the digital publication endeavor, “Born-Digital Scholarly Publishing: Resources and Roadmaps” aimed to expedite and broaden the dissemination of knowledge on the local and global levels: Participants left the institute prepared to encourage change at their own institutions by sharing the curriculum with colleagues. Editors were well positioned to continue conversations with authors, facilitating the road to publication so that new ideas and perspectives can reach readers in a timely manner. Both the 2022 and 2024 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 institute enabled Brown to continue expanding the reach of its pioneering approach to born-digital scholarly publication beyond its own campus, while also underscoring the University’s larger commitment to equity and diversity. It created an “extended family” of digital scholars for which Brown is a hub, in one instance forging an innovative teaching partnership with Brown faculty. Scholarly press directors and acquisitions editors, making up the majority of the faculty, gained greater understanding of the rapidly growing author interest in multimodal publications and were exposed to a set of outstanding scholars with important projects they might not otherwise have encountered. With the institute’s support, some authors were able to re-engage with projects that might otherwise have withered in the face of heavy teaching and administrative burdens.
Through its dedication to diverse voices, Brown University Digital Publications sets a new standard for excellence, encouraging others in the industry to push boundaries and achieve new heights. The EPIC Awards Celebration and Dinner will be held on May 29, 2025, during the 47th Annual Meeting of the Society for Scholarly Publishing in Baltimore, MD, where finalists will be recognized and winners in each category will be announced. For more information about the awards, please visit SSP’s website.
About Brown University Digital Publications
Brown University Digital Publications — generously launched with support from the Mellon Foundation in 2015 with additional support from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Institute of Museum and Library Services — creates exciting new conditions for the production and sharing of knowledge by advancing scholarly arguments in ways not achievable in a conventional print format, whether through multimedia enhancements or interactive engagement with research materials. Brown partners with leading scholarly presses to bring peer reviewed, open access, multimodal content to global audiences. Widely recognized as accessible, intentional, and inclusive, Brown’s novel, library-based approach to born-digital monograph publishing is helping to set the standards for the future of scholarship in the digital age.
