The Rights and Wrongs of Operational Practices in the Scottish Publishing Industry

• Published in: Publishing research quarterly Vol. 28; no. 4; pp. 345 - 358
• Main Author: Ramdarshan Bold, Melanie
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Boston Springer US 01.12.2012; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Academic libraries; Business; Colleges & universities; Conglomerates; Domestic markets; English language; Exact sciences and technology; Information and communication sciences; Information publishing, dissemination and reproduction; Information science. Documentation; Library Science; Logos; Methodology of the Social Sciences; Polls & surveys; Printing and Publishing; Property rights; Publishing industry; Publishing. Electronic publishing. Bibliological aspects; Sciences and techniques of general use; Small & medium sized enterprises-SME; Social Sciences; New York; Scotland; United Kingdom > UK; United States > US; Copyright; Scotland; IPR; Digital publishing; Small nation publishing; Right; Information industry; Publishing
• ISSN: 1053-8801; 1936-4792
• DOI: 10.1007/s12109-012-9293-0

Digital publishing has been considered as a panacea to bridge the gaps between different sized publishing companies: allowing small, independent companies to compete on an equal footing with cross-media conglomerates. However, this research discovered that Scottish publishers are not capitalising on new technology and new platforms for dissemination: this is detrimental to the authors they represent. The empirical research found that the majority of Scottish publishers are not fostering intellectual property rights (IPR) effectively across international markets and new media: The failure to do this means that the operational practices of the Scottish publishing industry are not in harmony with the burgeoning digital publishing environment. If Scottish publishers continue with current practices it will become increasingly difficult for them to compete in the national and international publishing environment. This study concludes that only by better training and knowledge exchange, in matters of rights exploitation and digital publishing, can Scottish publishers compete in the international arena and contribute to, and benefit financially from, the knowledge economy.