About this Cambridge Elements series

“An established series of research-focused collections of Elements on aspects of Publishing and Book Culture.”

This series aims to fill the demand for easily accessible, quality texts available for teaching and research in the diverse and dynamic fields of Publishing and Book Culture. Rigorously researched and peer-reviewed, this Elements series is published in thematic areas, or 'Gatherings', that can then be augmented by additional online materials.

The series is cross-disciplinary in nature, making it useful in a number of areas where there are currently few helpful resources for teaching and research purposes: Young Adult Publishing, for instance, or Bookselling. By bringing in an Advisory Board with members from all the connected communities covered by the scope of the series, content will remain current and relevant, and the speed of the publication process will ensure texts are available to match the pace of developing ideas and trends.

The ambition of the series is to make each Gathering the first check point for researchers or students working on that area of publishing and book trade history and practice: we hope that, situated so logically at Cambridge University Press, where academic publishing in the UK began, it will develop to create an unrivalled space where these histories and practices can be investigated and preserved.

A Gathering typically consists of at least 3 Elements (20k – 30k words each) which complement each other (either by discipline or by publisher or topic). Crucially, content draws on the collected expertise of the different communities connected to each Gathering – academics, librarians, booksellers, publishers, policy makers, learned societies, festival organisers, – so that the perspectives are represented in the round. Ideally, the perspectives would encompass a variety of geographical and ideological explorations.

Each Gathering has an Editor with experience in the field who commissions and oversees the development of their Elements in close collaboration with the Series Editor and Associate Editor.

The Elements series operates as its own research-in-practice project, utilising the strong working partnerships between the Press and the series Editors to investigate the opportunities for additional online materials as the series matures, whilst also striving to make the Element aesthetically appealing, as befits a series on publishing and book culture.