External Reviews

Kathleen Fitzpatrick

2 December 2009

¶ 1 Leave a comment on paragraph 1 0 NYU Press sent Planned Obsolescence out for traditional peer reviews, in addition to testing out this open review process. This external review took place in two stages: first, the press sent out the book proposal and a couple of sample chapters, prior to extending an advance contract; then, once completed, the press sent the entire manuscript as you see it here back to the same reviewers.

¶ 2 Leave a comment on paragraph 2 0 Eric Zinner, my editor at NYU Press, had the fantastic idea of asking the traditional reviewers if they would participate in this open process, by allowing us to publish their reviews here, allowing me to respond to them in public (and them to respond to me), and allowing you to discuss with them as well. One of these reviewers, Lisa Spiro, director of the Digital Media Center at Rice University’s Fondren Library, author of the blog Digital Scholarship in the Humanities, and developer of the Digital Research Tools wiki, agreed to participate in this process.

¶ 3 Leave a comment on paragraph 3 0 I’m extremely grateful to Lisa for allowing me the opportunity to conduct this conversation in public, and to think about revising this project in collaboration with the group of invested, innovative, smart folks who’ve passed through this site and commented here. I’m also grateful to the folks I’m working with at NYU, particularly Eric Zinner and Monica McCormick, for their support and assistance. I’ve asked them to add a few of their thoughts about this process, which we’ll post to the blog.