Online Scholarship

One consequence of the increasing use of the World Wide Web is the migration of scholarship to online venues. Internet publication has many advantages for scholarly and creative work, especially ease of access for millions of people.
Dr Elizabeth Cummins, Professor Emeritus of English and Technical Communication, is one of the scholars whose work is being published online. Her Judith Merrill: A Primary and Secondary Bibliography has just been published by the Center for the Bibliography of Science Fiction and Fantasy at Texas A&M University.
The site’s Introduction explains the background: the loss of print publishers for scholarly bibliographies and yet the continuing need scholars have for such bibliographies. Sponsored "by the Science Fiction Research Association, The International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts, Extrapolation magazine, and the Science Fiction and Fantasy Research Collection, Cushing Library, Texas A&M University," the Center is a fully qualified scholarly publisher
Earlier in the history of publication on the World Wide Web, many questioned whether such publication really counts as "scholarly," as legitimate publication, or as a kind of vanity publishing. Like other Web publishers, the Center for the Bibliography of Science Fiction and Fantasy qualifies as a full-fledged scholarly publisher. The bibliographies it publishes are reviewed by a qualified editorial board just as they would be for hard copy publishers.
Congratulations to Dr. Cummins on the latest publication of a labor of scholarly love. Judith Merrill is a crucial editor and writer in SF; now scholars around the world have ready access to this outstanding bibliography.