[XeTeX] (Xe)LaTeX output in a non-(Xe)LaTeX scholarly community

[jherrman at allegheny.edu]

Yes, as you would guess, the copy-editor marked up my files by hand
and sent me the hard copy. 

Recent OUP critical editions in Greek prose could use a lot more
copy-editing; I would assert that their production standards in this
area have fallen drastically in the last decade. We have new editions
of the Greek orators Demosthenes and Lysias in the Oxford Classical
Text series, all filled with rampant flaws in hyphenation and line
numbering in the apparatus. Reviews have also identified numerous
slips of a more substantial nature, that seem to suggest very little
copy-editing is happening on these in house. It seems that OUP has
adopted new modes of production for these critical editions that
create these problems, and authors (and copy-editors?) don't regularly
take the time to fix it all. I know in the case of my book the
copy-editor, who was otherwise very attentive, didn't seem to have
looked at the Greek at all.

The other major series of critical texts in Greek (and Latin), on the
other hand, the Bibliotheca Teubneriana, has been shuffled from one
publisher to another in the last decade. It's now in the hands of De
Gruyter, who seems devoted to its revitalization. They're requiring
all editors to submit camera-ready-copy, and recommending that they
use Critical Edition Typesetter (<http://www.karas.ch/cet/>). I have
the impression they only really care about the appearance of the CRC,
though, and wouldn't really care if authors prefer other typesetting
systems.

Jud Herrman


On 2010-10-23, John Was
<john.was at ntlworld.com> wrote:
> OUP will normally be amenable if saving money is in prospect!  I think the 
> barrier here has always been the copy-editing process (now more vulnerable 
> since house style is not seen as so important and indeed there is no longer 
> any copy-editing department at OUP).  A critical edition will normally 
> require a rather small amount of copy-editing, though there is still the 
> introduction and commentary to consider - but if a TeX-savvy author is 
> willing to implement those copy-editing changes and suggestions s/he agrees 
> with, there is no real difficulty.  The copy-editor would then presumably 
> work by pen(cil) on a draft PDF printout in the traditional way (or by 
> annotating the PDF electronically, which can be tedious).
>
> Or of course one can simply trust the author not to make any mistakes at 
> all, and forgo copy-editing.  Even twenty years ago this was mentioned as a 
> possibility at OUP but no one dared to do it in my time there.
>
> But I hope this doesn't become too much of a trend or I'll have to look for 
> something else to do!  In the meantime, I must dust down my old brown OCT of 
> Hyperides...
>
> John
>