The Challenges of Co-authoring a Background Chapter for an Open Textbook

Summary

As we move towards increasing open access to archaeological knowledge, textbooks are an integral part of that transition. Unfortunately, open access textbooks are not a well established form of knowledge dissemination amongst archaeologists and currently do not hold as much credibility as traditionally published works such as peer reviewed journals or printed textbooks. In hopes of contributing a chapter to an open access textbook, what are the keys to making such a background chapter successful? What elements are necessary to prove that such a chapter has validity in the eyes of archaeologists but also leverages the benefits of an open source textbook? What traditional textbook themes are required and what others should be left aside to improve the way that textbooks can be used to pass on background knowledge to new students? This paper aims to discuss some of those specifics to create a solid foundation for co-authoring a chapter for an open source textbook. It will examine the necessities as well as discuss innovative ideas for working on a large collaborative project.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 20567