Call for Authors - Open Access History of Applied Science & Technology Textbook

Type: Call for Publications
Subject Fields: History of Science, Medicine, and Technology, Labor History / Studies, Maritime History / Studies, Military History, World History / Studies

Authors are invited to contribute to a high quality, peer-reviewed, open access textbook to meet the needs of History of Applied Science and Technology courses at colleges and universities around the world. Specifically, this textbook will center on the theme of the transformative impact of technological and epistemological changes on worldview and human behavior as they relate to every day life and global choices.

More and more courses are moving toward Open Education Resources (OERs) to reduce and even eliminate the cost of textbooks to students. OERs with the Creative Commons–Attribution license also offer a freely accessible foundation for college courses, with the ability to be tailored each instructor's needs. However, such resources are few and far between in the humanities, and often where they do exist, they tend to lack peer review, and advertising detracts from and clutters the material. These diffuse resources also lack a key element so useful to students in survey courses: an overarching narrative.

We have the opportunity to create an Open Access textbook to meet all of these challenges. This sixteen - twenty chapter OA textbook will provide a cohesive and compelling narrative, be global in approach and flexible in design, adapt well to eight or sixteen week courses, be free of charge in its digital form, and be available optionally as a paperback at the same cost paid by the publisher (likely around $20).

Authors will have the opportunity to contribute either sections of chapters or whole chapters of 7,000-9,000 words each. We believe that students best learn history by doing history, and our method reflects this commitment. We ask authors to emphasize critical thinking, transparency, primary sources, and argument.
Compensation will be participation in the dissemination of knowledge and contributing to the Open Access ecosystem, as well as a contributor by-line on the CV.

The Digital Press @ UND, an Open Access publisher, has been providing technical support and encouragement for this project. This is an ongoing working relationship, and we anticipate a publication partnership. We anticipate completion of the manuscript by 1 July 2018.

Interested authors should submit a brief bio (100-250 words) and CV to the executive editor, Danielle Mead Skjelver, by 1 July 2016. 
Contact Info: Danielle Mead Skjelver 

Course Chair: History Capstone Series, African American History, Technological Transformations 
University of Maryland University College