What future for digital scholarly editions? From Haute Couture to Prêt-à-Porter

Abstract

Digital scholarly editions are expensive to make and to maintain. As such, they prove unattainable for less established scholars like early careers and PhD students, or indeed anyone without access to significant funding. One solution could be to create tools and platforms able to provide a publishing framework for digital scholarly editions that requires neither a high-tech skillset nor big investment. I call this type of edition “Prêt-à-Porter”, to be distinguished from “haute couture” editions which are tailored to the specific needs of specific scholars. I argued that both types of editions are necessary for a healthy scholarly environment.