This study investigates a range of metrics available when an article is published to see which metrics associate with its eventual citation count. The purposes are to contribute to developing a citation model and to inform policymakers about which predictor variables associate with citations in different fields of science. Despite the complex nature of reasons for citation, some attributes of a paper’s authors, journal, references, abstract, field, country and institutional affiliations, and funding source are known to associate with its citation impact. This thesis investigates some common factors previously assessed and some new factors: journal author internationality; journal citing author internationality; cited journal author internationality; cited journal citing author internationality; impact of the author(s), publishing journal, affiliated institution, and affiliated country; length of paper; abstract and title; number of references; size of the field; number of authors, institutions and countries; abstract readability; and research funding. A sample of articles and proceedings papers in the 22 Essential Science Indicators subject fields from the Web of Science constitute the research data set. Using negative binomial hurdle models, this study simultaneously assesses the above factors using large scale data. The study found very similar behaviours across subject categories and broad areas in terms of factors associating with more citations. Journal and reference factors are the most effective determinants of future citation counts in most subject domains. Individual and international teamwork give a citation advantage in majority of subject areas but inter-institutional teamwork seems not to contribute to citation impact.

A simple observation about the nature of reading initiated this project. The observation was that in reading we are able to use ink on paper as an equivalence of the real world event it details. Attempts to account for this by examining reading as it progresses did not give rise to clarification of this phenomenon, but solely to reading itself. Encounters with the text always resulting in 'ending-up-just-reading'. This is identifiable as a central characteristic of the material and the reader's attitude towards it. As this difficulty with the nature of the undertaking threatened to stop any theoretical progress, various methodologies, including Ethnomethodology, were applied to the material in order to produce a way forward. However, these theoretical approaches did not solve the phenomenon of reading but merely multiplied its problematic features. Their terms displacing the focus of attention away from reading, to the internal expression of the approach itself. Elsewhere within the project a more reflexive approach was adopted. Examining the roles of reader, theorist and author that were variously adopted. The recognition that the author in detailing experiences as a reader of texts succeeds only in creating another text. There is an examination of levels of access available to the project reader and the constraints this places on any reading that can be made. Otherwise expressed, it is the reading of one text through the confines of another, we are always trapped within the medium. From this recognition that 'viewing from within' is an intrinsic, inescapable feature of reading, a solution to 'ending-up-just reading' offers itself. Aspects of reading are made obvious by getting the reader to activate them, as they read of them. The solution is an ethnographical account of the reading of a newspaper story, an interpretive account. Its success may be gauged by the familiarity of its description and its expression of shared reading experiences and common reading practices.

This thesis examines geographical publishing in mid-Victorian Britain. Focusing specifically on literatures of travel and exploration, it considers the role of publishers and the publishing industry more widely in shaping the geographical understandings of a range of mid-Victorian readers. Through a detailed examination of the production, circulation and reception of four publishing projects, this thesis provides insights into the challenges and opportunities associated with different forms of publishing whilst also drawing attention to the broader print culture which was implicated in bringing knowledge of these works (and the geographies within them) to various reading publics. The first chapter offers a critical overview of recent work by historical geographers and historians of science concerning print culture, publishing and scientific knowledge. It also outlines the theoretical framework adopted within this thesis which emphasises the importance of considering production, circulation and reception simultaneously. The second chapter develops this discussion further by providing a rationale for a study of travel and exploration publishing specifically. It also explores the methodological implications of deploying an approach which simultaneously considers how particular works of geography were produced, replicated and consumed in the mid-Victorian period. Chapters 3-6 offer detailed case studies of particular publishing projects. Chapter 3 examines David Livingstone's Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa (John Murray, 1857). Chapter 4 explores Francis Galton's The Art of Travel or, Shifts and Contrivances Available in Wild Countries (John Murray, 1855). Chapters 5 and 6 focus on multi-authored works. Chapter five considers the series Vacation Tourists and Notes of Travel (Macmillan and Co., 1861-1864). Chapter 6 investigates the periodical Geographical Magazine (Trtibner, 1874-1878). Through these case studies, as the concluding chapter 7 highlights, this thesis offers new insights into the way that print figured in shaping particular geographical imaginations during the nineteenth century.

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This thesis explores the potential futures of the scholarly monograph in an increasingly digital environment. By positioning the medium of the book as a major site of struggle over the future of scholarly knowledge production within the humanities, this thesis argues for the importance of experimenting with alternative ways of thinking and performing the academic monograph. In particular, it argues for the importance of experiments that go beyond simply iteratively reproducing established print practices of knowledge production, dissemination and consumption. This is especially important when the present print-based arrangements tend to sustain the interest of established stakeholders, inhibiting wider access to scholarly research and experimentation with new forms of scholarship and scholarly communication. This thesis will examine some of the forms a politics of the book based on openness, remix and liquidity might take. It will draw on some recent experiments in scholarly book publishing—from liquid and living books to anonymous authorship and radical open access—that try to challenge and rethink the book as a fixed and stable commercial object, as well as the political economy and scholarly practices surrounding it. These experiments do so by cutting the book together and apart differently and by exploring experimentation as a specific discourse and practice of critique.

In this dissertation I call into question the way the concept of ‘field' is treated in neo institutional research by readdressing Pierre Bourdieu's elaboration of field. I discuss Bourdieu's framework which includes three concepts: field, capital and habitus. While Bourdieu's work has been widely incorporated into extant research, there have been few attempts to employ his concepts as a ‘theoretical triad' for empirical analysis. I explore how Bourdieu's approach enriches understandings of field through an analysis of book publishing with primary reference to Scotland. I contribute to the current literature on fields by examining book publishing as a social space, structured by the distribution of capital and moderated by habitus, that operates within the confines of internally defined boundaries. The dissertation illustrates how Bourdieu's elaboration of field addresses issues of struggle, power and micro dynamics that are underexplored within the field perspective of neo institutional theory. I argue that Bourdieu's framework of field, capital and habitus is useful because it brings simultaneous attention to processes of stability in social interaction and to conflict and difference.

The academy has long relied on publisher-facilitated research dissemination; yet digital dissemination has dramatically transformed the scholarly publishing field. Particularly, open access (OA) has disrupted an increasingly commodified and fetishised publishing praxis, creating an open intellectual commons. However, despite OA's public good, academics remain indifferent to its praxis. The UK academy's policy environment and cultural practices, represent a unique arena to consider these issues within. Limited research concerning the UK academy's rationales for OA engagement exists, particularly qualitative work critically evaluating influences and barriers to achieving cultural change. From a novel ethnographically-framed sociological perspective, combined with empirical investigations, this research addresses this gap in knowledge through comprehending academics' OA responses, publishing influences, actor power-relationships and related HE policy environments. A novel theoretical framework employing Marx, Foucault, Gramsci and the Italian Autonomous-Marxists' conceptualisations of power-relations, struggle and resistance, empower an ideological critique analysis. An examination of how increasingly marketised universities have embraced cognitive capitalism and academic alienation, contrasts with the tensions, events and concepts underlying UK OA's development. Extensive semi-structured interviews with different publishing actors provide cultural-native insights. OA practitioners expose the publication field's configuration, academics and other publishing actors' discourse develop further insights, while academic activists reveal how differing approaches affect dissemination praxis. Analysis indicates actors, including governmental bodies, commercial publishers and funders, dominate a hegemonic ruling-bloc, through controlling economic and symbolic esteem capital. An academy is revealed shifting from idealised OA, towards pragmatic compliance with a normative gold-OA form, although concerns about perceived cost barriers and diminished prestige capital remain. Despite ruling-bloc efforts to address the conjunctural crisis OA represents, a disaggregated counter-hegemonic resistance exists: providing platforms, sustainable publishing, and exposing inequities. While gold-OA praxis proliferates, a struggle for agency within scholarly publishing praxis continues. Hence, ostensibly future dissemination will contain OA elements, but its conformation remains uncertain.

The aim of this thesis is to examine the practice of publishing followed by English little presses in the post-World War II period, with particular emphasis on the design and production of books. There is relatively little published material on these presses from the perspective of publishing and design history, and this thesis seeks to redress some of this imbalance. Using a case-study approach, this thesis focuses on the publishing practice of five London-based presses over a thirty-five-year period (1945-1979): Stuart Montgomery's Fulcrum Press, Stefan and Franciszka Themerson's Gaberbocchus Press, Roy Lewis's Keepsake Press, Asa Benveniste's Trigram Press, and Bob Cobbing's Writers Forum. It draws from a variety of sources, including interviews with many closely associated with the presses, archival material (such as correspondence with authors and suppliers, invoices, and artwork), and an analysis of editions published by these presses. The thesis briefly compares little press practice to mainstream publishing and private press practice of the time. Relationships between little presses and mainstream organizations including the Arts Council of Great Britain and the Poetry Society are also briefly considered. The thesis consists of two parts. The first part provides the general context and background and consists of two chapters. The first chapter critically evaluates published material related to little press publishing from different angles, including publishing history, design and printing history, and literary history, with the intention of establishing key sources. The second chapter provides brief biographical information about the principals, and considers their individual methods of operation, including editorial agendas, approaches to marketing and distribution, and financial support. The second part of this thesis is focused on aspects of book production and design, and begins by providing a brief overview of mainstream book production and design during this period. Subsequent chapters, organised by press, examine different aspects of book production and design, with the intention of establishing the extent to which design was an important factor in little press publishing. The approaches, methods, and equipment employed in book production are discussed, and an overview of each press's approach to book design with particular emphasis on typography, illustration, layout and colour is provided. This is further supplemented by a detailed analysis of a chosen title published by each press. An illustrated catalogue of 357 books published by these presses provides added visual context.

This thesis addresses the phenomenon of museum publishing to question why books are produced by museums. The answer to this question is sought through an empirical study that examines museum books from both their production and their reception as well as a detailed study of the relationship of the texts to the museum. The case study methodology supplies interview data from museum staff involved in writing, editing, designing and project-managing the production of books at the National Gallery and the Wellcome Collection, both in London. Interviews with staff involved with publishing in other national and provincial institutions broaden the basis of these case studies. Visitor responses are obtained primarily through questionnaires delivered electronically to volunteers who purchased exhibition books at these institutions. The cross-disciplinary research draws on theories from museum and publishing studies. Data are analysed from the theoretical position of an active audience (Abercrombie and Longhurst 1998) whose uses of books encompass functions of memory and representation. Genette’s (1997) concept of paratext forms the basis from which to characterise the reciprocal relationship between catalogues and their associated exhibitions. Books contribute to the communication resources of museums, but rather than being viewed merely as adjuncts to the exhibits on display, they are presented in this study as integral to the visitor’s experience both during the museum visit and later, as distributed objects in personal ownership and in wider society. The authority and cultural values associated with books when combined with those of the museum make them a particularly forceful resource for meaning-making for both the producers and the consumers.

This study assesses the role of the Western publisher in the creation of African literature through an examination of Oxford University Press's Three Crowns Series, a previously overlooked series that existed from 1962 to 1976. Using archival evidence to examine the economics and the institutions of African literary publishing, and the patterns of assimilation and resistance in author-publisher relations, this study addresses some of the broader concerns of postcolonialism through a study involving the methodology of book history. Part I surveys OUP's history in Africa, and questions whether this supports the formulation of the Western publisher in Africa as an agent of a `civilising mission' or an agent of `cultural imperialism'. It charts how OUP established and maintained its dominant cultural and economic position in Africa in the 20th century, and describes the complex system adopted for the cross-subsidisation of economic and cultural capital. It also explores OUP's work in apartheid South Africa, and analyses the tension between scholarly publishing for the liberal academic establishment and publishing schoolbooks for Bantu Education. Part II examines the history and publishing strategy for Three Crowns, and considers the hierarchies of literary production and consumption that were instituted. It addresses the role of the publisher in selecting, editing, producing, promoting and distributing new postcolonial writing. Through reference to author case-studies, it assesses how the aesthetic and commercial value of African literature was negotiated, and explores the systems of inclusion and exclusion in operation. Case-studies of the publication of Wole Soyinka and Athol Fugard address the impact of the publisher in the construction of the authors' literary identities. In the case of OUP's Three Crowns series, this study concludes that the publisher exercised a decisive influence on the constitution of African literature institutionally as well as on the material form of the books, and that the processes of publication profoundly affected the reception and meaning of the texts.