What is an electronic edition?
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A printed edition represents a text with preface, introduction, notes, index etc. published by a particular publisher at a specific date and in a specific place. It is the package as a whole that gets an ISBN reference. The edition may be reprinted or printed in a physically different form using the same content. The first (a reprint) is not a new edition, but the second (e.g. a paperback edition) is. The content may be revised for a second edition or the same content may be published with a new preface (another edition). All scholars recognise the importance of recording which edition of a text they have used.
If an electronic edition is published on CD ROM the situation is analogous to print publication. These are one-hit publications and can be assigned ISBN references.
With on-line publication the situation is more complex. One of the joys of on-line publishing is that you can continue to revise and update material after publication without encountering the costs represented by revised editions in print. However, if on-line editions are to be referenced with confidence by scholars, they must provide an acceptable level of stability. If the contents of an on-line edition can change silently, a scholar cannot rely on his references remaining valid. Moreover, if on-line publications are to be peer reviewed, there must be transparency about any subsequent changes. At CELL we control and document releases of revisions to our editions to overcome this problem and to ensure that all changes to our editions are transparent.
A CELL edition consists of the source texts and any tools used in the transformation of those texts. This differs from authorities such as the Modern Language Association of America Committee on Scholarly Editions, which consider that the edition consists of the source texts alone. A simple example [new window] will demonstrate why we think this is inadequate.
