Mind the Gap - A Landscape Analysis of Open Source Publishing Tools and Platforms

Aug 26, 2026

Uploaded by Skyler

A landscape analysis examines how open-source publishing infrastructure has expanded over the past two decades, shifting from largely proprietary toolchains toward interoperable projects accessible to many institutions. The report clarifies why adoption depends not only on available free tools but also on community practices and integration into broader contexts. It provides an overview of the open-source ecosystem alongside individual project profiles, aiming to support university presses and mission-focused enterprises in durable, cost-beneficial decision-making and planning.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages88

Reading Time3 h 42 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

The Landscape

Bibliography

Catalogue of Projects

MIND THE GAP A Landscape Analysis of Open Source Publishing Tools and Platforms John W Maxwell, Erik Hanson, Leena Desai, Carmen Tiampo, Kim O’Donnell, Avvai Ketheeswaran, Melody Sun, Emma Walter, Ellen Michelle Canadian Institute for Studies in Publishing, Simon Fraser University [mindthegap.pubpub.org | DOI](mindthegap.pubpub.org | DOI) 10.21428/6bc8b38c.2e2f6c3f Table of Contents 1 Introduction 5 The Landscape 29 Bibliography 31 Catalogue of Projects 33 dokieli 34 Editoria 35 Electric Book 36 Enhanced Networked Monographs 37 epub.js 38 Fidus Writer 39 Fulcrum 40 Grobid 41 HIRMEOS OA Metrics 42 Hy-phen 43 Hyphenopoly 44 Hypher 45 Hypothesis 46 Janeway 47 Jupiter Notebook 48 KaTeX 49 Lens 50 le-tex Transpect 51 Libero Producer 52 Libero Publisher 53 Libero Reviewer 54 Lodel 55 Manifold Scholarship 56 MathJax 57 Mukurtu 58 Omeka 59 Open Journal Systems 60 Open Monograph Press 61 Open Typesetting Stack 62 paged.js 63 Pandoc 64 Paperbuzz 65 Phenom Reviewer 66 Phenom Screener 67 Pressbooks 68 ProseMirror 69 PubPub 70 PubSweet 71 Quire 72 Readium 73 Rebus Ink 74 Rua 75 Scalar 76 Shiny 77 Stencil a 78 Tectonic 79 Texture 80 Vega 81 Vivliostyle 82 Wax 83 XSweet 84 Zotero 85 Acknowledgements Mind the Gap Introduction Over the past two decades, a new breed of publishing infrastructure has emerged via open-source software. Where publishing toolchains had previously been almost entirely populated by proprietary and often bespoke software systems, we now see a proliferation of open-source projects available for adoption and integration—on a different economic and operational footing. Many such projects have been designed and developed by a single institution to suit its own particular needs, but the terms of open-source software licensing, deployment, and indeed governance mean these systems are also readily available to other institutions. At a more ambitious level, they may even form a layer of community infrastructure that rivals—or at least provides a functional alternative—to the commercial infrastructure run by a small number of for-profit entities. That such a proliferation of open-source projects now exists is a boon, but the landscape is noisy and difficult to understand as a whole. There is no guidebook or map to this landscape—a problem the present report seeks to address. MIT Press, in its 2018 application to the Andrew W Mellon Foundation, identified the need for a “comprehensive and critical analysis of OS publishing systems in active use” that “could prove to be durable alternatives to complex and costly proprietary services.” The present report is the result of that research and analysis. Our hope is that this report will provide the university press community and other mission-focused enterprises with both an overview of the open-source landscape as well as profiles of a good number of these projects individually. Our intention is to shed light on the development and deployment of open source publishing technologies in order to aid institutions’ and individuals’ decisionmaking and project planning. There is enormous value in the collection of open-source projects surveyed here in terms of raw functionality as well as in the ways that prototyping and the evolution of design materially change the ways in which we think about publishing and scholarly communications. At a more detailed level, this report seeks to encourage the adoption and continued development of these platforms, but also to encourage the development of the community and market environment that surrounds these efforts. As such, while this report provides a catalogue of individual open-source publishing tools (see Part II), it also examines the ecosystem in which these tools and projects exist. If publishers are to develop or find robust, cost-beneficial [mindthegap.pubpub.org](mindthegap.pubpub.org 1)[ 1](mindthegap.pub

FAQs

What problem does the report aim to address?

The report addresses the difficulty of understanding the noisy and fast-growing landscape of open-source publishing systems, noting there is no comprehensive guidebook or map to it.

How did the authors build and filter the project catalog?

They assembled a master list of projects, filtered for open-source software relevant to scholarly publishing, and further筛选 for projects still under active development using evidence of ongoing work and documentation.

Why does adoption require more than simply having free tools?

The report emphasizes that robust alternatives depend heavily on community practices and integrating multiple tools into a broader interoperable context, forming a system of community infrastructure rather than isolated software.

Aug 26, 2026

Uploaded by Skyler