Electronic publishing: the example of BMSAES

Informatique et Egyptologie has tried to place itself in the forefront of encouraging developments in information technology (informatique, Informatik) into use in Egyptology. Issues which have been addressed, and which continue to be addressed, include databases, hieroglyphic word-processors, and the Internet. The stress over the past twenty years has very much been on encouraging developments to aid research, but the group has paid relatively little attention as to how this research should be disseminated and how the technologies we espouse so readily in other spheres might be turned to this end. It is now time for us to lead the way in publishing material via electronic media, since all work which has no publication might, in many ways, have been not done at all.2 What is an electronic publication? In theory the term should refer to any document produced electronically and available in some way for public viewing, free or at cost. In practical terms I am thinking rather of completed work which traditionally would see the light of day in print. The most common method these days for presenting the results of research is via a web page, either as a complete web site, individual articles or a journal-like publication available over the Internet. A CD ROM which fits the criteria of distribution just mention is another method, which these days tends to concentrate on large datasets and lends itself particularly to data which is not likely to be modified. It is not difficult to quote examples of both, particularly web sites, the latter of which lend themselves well also to publishing interim material on the way to the final report. The best example of a CD-ROM for our purposes is the AEB, but it might also prove an interesting adjunct to publish some of the raw data for a book in this way too. Today the move is for material to be available on the Internet, although much of what I have to say below is applicable to any electronic format. My aim is to survey the advantages and problems of the concept, and to look at some possible solutions. I wish to draw the reader’s attention to two particular publications which illustrate some of the concepts of electronic publication within the archaeological and Egyptological area. Archaeology has one principal electronic journal, Internet Archaeology (http://intarch.ac.uk/), located within the University of York in the UK. This publication has been active since 1996, and has been accepted as a mainstream publication among the archaeological community. Within the Egyptological sphere there is at present only Internet-Beiträge zur Ägyptologie und Sudanarchäologie (IBAES— http://www2.rz.hu-berlin.de/nilus/net-publications/index.html), published in the Humboldt-Universität in Berlin. IBAES is less of a journal and more of a forum for longer papers and specific collections, but the underlying principal of publication by electronic means is the same.