Simon Davies
@simonfd.bsky.social
Publishing Manager, @themhra.bsky.social
Co-editor of the MHRA Style Guide
Posting about scholarly publishing • History and future of the book • Book design, typography, typesetting 📚
Also work on the history of witchcraft & magic 🌒
• Views here my own
Co-editor of the MHRA Style Guide
Posting about scholarly publishing • History and future of the book • Book design, typography, typesetting 📚
Also work on the history of witchcraft & magic 🌒
• Views here my own
Authors, vote with your feet (your MSS). You absolutely do not have to publish with a for-profit publisher that is outsourcing vital work to incompetent robots. It is always a choice to do so and there are always alternatives that are just as prestigious.
At least one academic publisher is now outsourcing article production to an AI firm. How's it going?
Problems with Publishers Moving to AI-Based Production - Daily Nous
Straive is a firm that uses AI to, among other things, help publishers with various tasks "across the publishing value chain". One of its clients is Springer Nature, the publisher of many philosophy j...
dailynous.com
December 19, 2025 at 5:22 PM
Authors, vote with your feet (your MSS). You absolutely do not have to publish with a for-profit publisher that is outsourcing vital work to incompetent robots. It is always a choice to do so and there are always alternatives that are just as prestigious.
Came across ‘scaffold’ used as a verb in an article about ‘AI’ this morning. I presume they mean the execution kind
December 19, 2025 at 11:47 AM
Came across ‘scaffold’ used as a verb in an article about ‘AI’ this morning. I presume they mean the execution kind
Another wildly OTT bookplate from the C19th:
December 18, 2025 at 4:00 PM
Another wildly OTT bookplate from the C19th:
Just wonderful news. The intentions of the EUDR are good, but it would never have worked for books.
www.thebookseller.com/news/eu-parl...
www.thebookseller.com/news/eu-parl...
EU Parliament votes to exempt books from EU Deforestation Regulations
The EU Parliament has voted to exempt printed products, including books, journals, newspapers and magazines, from the updated EU Deforestation Regulations.
www.thebookseller.com
December 18, 2025 at 2:43 PM
Just wonderful news. The intentions of the EUDR are good, but it would never have worked for books.
www.thebookseller.com/news/eu-parl...
www.thebookseller.com/news/eu-parl...
I have a few of these good-looking Texts & Translations catalogues left over from an event: if anyone would like one, especially if you have a nice English Lit/Modern Languages common room to leave it lying around in, DM me and I’ll send you one! 📚
December 18, 2025 at 2:01 PM
I have a few of these good-looking Texts & Translations catalogues left over from an event: if anyone would like one, especially if you have a nice English Lit/Modern Languages common room to leave it lying around in, DM me and I’ll send you one! 📚
Reposted by Simon Davies
🔈🔈🔈 We're delighted to announce four forthcoming books!
Two in New Translations...
- 'Thomas Mann, The Later Stories. 1925–1953', translated by Malcolm Spencer.
- 'Berthe Morisot’s Journals. Art, Literature, and her Impressionist Circle', translated by Claire Moran.
Two in New Translations...
- 'Thomas Mann, The Later Stories. 1925–1953', translated by Malcolm Spencer.
- 'Berthe Morisot’s Journals. Art, Literature, and her Impressionist Circle', translated by Claire Moran.
December 18, 2025 at 1:08 PM
🔈🔈🔈 We're delighted to announce four forthcoming books!
Two in New Translations...
- 'Thomas Mann, The Later Stories. 1925–1953', translated by Malcolm Spencer.
- 'Berthe Morisot’s Journals. Art, Literature, and her Impressionist Circle', translated by Claire Moran.
Two in New Translations...
- 'Thomas Mann, The Later Stories. 1925–1953', translated by Malcolm Spencer.
- 'Berthe Morisot’s Journals. Art, Literature, and her Impressionist Circle', translated by Claire Moran.
Thanks, Microsoft To Do, for auto-adding these dates to my to-do list -- sadly I'm a little overdue already 😰
December 18, 2025 at 12:30 PM
Thanks, Microsoft To Do, for auto-adding these dates to my to-do list -- sadly I'm a little overdue already 😰
Here's the thing about 'AI': if it was an honest, genuinely useful technology, there would be no need for companies like Microsoft or Adobe to force it on us without our consent. That proves that take-up isn't happening naturally, at least not in line with the hype.
December 18, 2025 at 12:03 PM
Here's the thing about 'AI': if it was an honest, genuinely useful technology, there would be no need for companies like Microsoft or Adobe to force it on us without our consent. That proves that take-up isn't happening naturally, at least not in line with the hype.
Wiley’s ‘AI’ submission platform can’t even accurately count the words in a Word doc, so I’d say they’ve got a way to go yet
Guest Post — Three Ways to Innovate and Reimagine Publisher Value in an AI World scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2025/12/18/g...
Guest Post - Three Ways to Innovate and Reimagine Publisher Value in an AI World - The Scholarly Kitchen
AI is presenting new challenges while also giving us tools to innovate in ways. The most successful publishers will be those willing to challenge the status quo.
scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org
December 18, 2025 at 11:01 AM
Wiley’s ‘AI’ submission platform can’t even accurately count the words in a Word doc, so I’d say they’ve got a way to go yet
Some great lines in here. Good fun
lithub.com/the-most-sca...
lithub.com/the-most-sca...
The Most Scathing Book Reviews of 2025
Pans, glorious pans. No end-of-year roundup would be complete without them. Among the books being driven into the woods by pitchfork-wielding villagers this year: Louis C.K.’s masturbatory debut no…
lithub.com
December 17, 2025 at 11:24 AM
Some great lines in here. Good fun
lithub.com/the-most-sca...
lithub.com/the-most-sca...
An enjoyable read; all these bugbears are very familiar to me from my time editing science papers. Includes a cracking error of its own just for the nerds 😊
‘Things that drive Editors crazy: jargon, unnecessary abbreviations, abusing decimals and a few more’
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
‘Things that drive Editors crazy: jargon, unnecessary abbreviations, abusing decimals and a few more’
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
a close up of darth vader 's helmet with the number 1 on it
ALT: a close up of darth vader 's helmet with the number 1 on it
media.tenor.com
December 16, 2025 at 10:22 AM
An enjoyable read; all these bugbears are very familiar to me from my time editing science papers. Includes a cracking error of its own just for the nerds 😊
‘Things that drive Editors crazy: jargon, unnecessary abbreviations, abusing decimals and a few more’
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
‘Things that drive Editors crazy: jargon, unnecessary abbreviations, abusing decimals and a few more’
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
When I was an academic I shared this rage against endnotes. Now I'm a publisher and typographer.... I see that endnotes have their place 😅
(Footnotes really spoil the look of the page! Think of the beautiful proportions of my perfect text block 🥲)
(Footnotes really spoil the look of the page! Think of the beautiful proportions of my perfect text block 🥲)
Just use footnotes. No one likes checking references at a later page.
December 15, 2025 at 4:05 PM
When I was an academic I shared this rage against endnotes. Now I'm a publisher and typographer.... I see that endnotes have their place 😅
(Footnotes really spoil the look of the page! Think of the beautiful proportions of my perfect text block 🥲)
(Footnotes really spoil the look of the page! Think of the beautiful proportions of my perfect text block 🥲)
This book, Notes on Footnotes, presents its notes as chapter endnotes, the worst of all note formats 🥲
Looking forward to reading this.
Always happy to see more books about the theory/practice of scholarly editing. Too many think they can do it just because they know about an author, but it’s a complex field in its own right!
Always happy to see more books about the theory/practice of scholarly editing. Too many think they can do it just because they know about an author, but it’s a complex field in its own right!
December 15, 2025 at 2:32 PM
This book, Notes on Footnotes, presents its notes as chapter endnotes, the worst of all note formats 🥲
Looking forward to reading this.
Always happy to see more books about the theory/practice of scholarly editing. Too many think they can do it just because they know about an author, but it’s a complex field in its own right!
Always happy to see more books about the theory/practice of scholarly editing. Too many think they can do it just because they know about an author, but it’s a complex field in its own right!
December 15, 2025 at 2:26 PM
Looking forward to reading this.
Always happy to see more books about the theory/practice of scholarly editing. Too many think they can do it just because they know about an author, but it’s a complex field in its own right!
Always happy to see more books about the theory/practice of scholarly editing. Too many think they can do it just because they know about an author, but it’s a complex field in its own right!
I don't think 53% of 1,645 is 'most peer reviewers', thankfully. I very much doubt any peer reviewers in the humanities would even dream of using 'AI', would they?
Most peer reviewers now use AI – report
www.researchinformation.info/news/most-pe...
Frontiers paper says publishing policy now needs to keep pace with a "global community eager to use AI confidently and responsibly"
www.researchinformation.info/news/most-pe...
Frontiers paper says publishing policy now needs to keep pace with a "global community eager to use AI confidently and responsibly"
Most peer reviewers now use AI – report - Research Information
Frontiers paper says publishing policy now needs to keep pace with a "global community eager to use AI confidently and responsibly"
www.researchinformation.info
December 15, 2025 at 2:14 PM
I don't think 53% of 1,645 is 'most peer reviewers', thankfully. I very much doubt any peer reviewers in the humanities would even dream of using 'AI', would they?
Making an extra effort to have an Amazon-free Christmas this year, and absolutely nothing is arriving. Does Bezos also have a stranglehold over the postal system?!
December 13, 2025 at 2:02 PM
Making an extra effort to have an Amazon-free Christmas this year, and absolutely nothing is arriving. Does Bezos also have a stranglehold over the postal system?!
When you really hate falconry but you have to do it anyway
#relatable
#relatable
December 12, 2025 at 5:54 PM
When you really hate falconry but you have to do it anyway
#relatable
#relatable
Just the most cutest witch's familiar you ever saw 😊🐶
December 12, 2025 at 5:44 PM
Just the most cutest witch's familiar you ever saw 😊🐶
The world continues to get stranger and stranger; here we have discussion of the work of Stanley Morison on a national news broadcaster in 2025. It’s nice to hear things like letterspacing discussed so publicly, but I do wish the world was a little less insane
The State Dept. font story is pretty silly, but I like that it gives the public a chance to learn more about a craft they encounter every day. Here’s the designer of Calibri, Luc(as) de Groot, on CNN talking parameters and spindly serifs. video.snapstream.net/Play/2UPcOhf...
What We Know With Max Foster - Luc de Groot
Powered by SnapStream Cloud Sharing
video.snapstream.net
December 11, 2025 at 4:25 PM
The world continues to get stranger and stranger; here we have discussion of the work of Stanley Morison on a national news broadcaster in 2025. It’s nice to hear things like letterspacing discussed so publicly, but I do wish the world was a little less insane
I’m a little sad I don’t live in a time when a university press can operate from an enormous ostentatious pilastered building on Madison Avenue 😔
Oxford University Press has sold its longtime Madison Ave. headquarters to a group led by Benchmark Properties, a brokerage and investment firm, and moved into a new office space on Fifth Ave.
OUP Sells Manhattan Offices for $40 Million
Oxford University Press has sold its longtime New York City headquarters on Madison Ave. to a group led by Benchmark Properties, a brokerage and investment firm.
buff.ly
December 10, 2025 at 10:23 PM
I’m a little sad I don’t live in a time when a university press can operate from an enormous ostentatious pilastered building on Madison Avenue 😔
Why in god’s name would anyone even consider embedding ‘AI’ in the REF? Like why would this thought even occur in the first place? Something would have to be extremely wrong with the brain that came up with that
NEW on Wonkhe: Lizzie Gadd and Dan Parsons argue that if AI is to be embedded into REF it should reflect sector values not just technological possibility buff.ly/GxdAtNs
December 9, 2025 at 10:36 AM
Why in god’s name would anyone even consider embedding ‘AI’ in the REF? Like why would this thought even occur in the first place? Something would have to be extremely wrong with the brain that came up with that
Interesting-looking new book from OUP by a former colleague of mine:
#earlymodern #bookhistory
academic.oup.com/book/60681
#earlymodern #bookhistory
academic.oup.com/book/60681
Early Modern Merchants and their Books
Abstract. Early Modern Merchants and their Books offers the first dedicated study of the literary and intellectual lives of the merchants of seventeenth-ce
academic.oup.com
December 8, 2025 at 8:39 PM
Interesting-looking new book from OUP by a former colleague of mine:
#earlymodern #bookhistory
academic.oup.com/book/60681
#earlymodern #bookhistory
academic.oup.com/book/60681
Hello everyone, what do you think about the Th ligature? I'm starting to quite dislike it.
Top to bottom (all Adobe): 1. Caslon, 2. Caslon with ligature switched off for Th, kerning -20, 3. Aldine, 4. Minion 3, 5. Minion Pro
(The more I look at it the less any of them look right?!)
#typography
Top to bottom (all Adobe): 1. Caslon, 2. Caslon with ligature switched off for Th, kerning -20, 3. Aldine, 4. Minion 3, 5. Minion Pro
(The more I look at it the less any of them look right?!)
#typography
December 3, 2025 at 6:03 PM
Hello everyone, what do you think about the Th ligature? I'm starting to quite dislike it.
Top to bottom (all Adobe): 1. Caslon, 2. Caslon with ligature switched off for Th, kerning -20, 3. Aldine, 4. Minion 3, 5. Minion Pro
(The more I look at it the less any of them look right?!)
#typography
Top to bottom (all Adobe): 1. Caslon, 2. Caslon with ligature switched off for Th, kerning -20, 3. Aldine, 4. Minion 3, 5. Minion Pro
(The more I look at it the less any of them look right?!)
#typography
My face when I have to write something/anything
December 2, 2025 at 6:33 PM
My face when I have to write something/anything