Scientific Blogs as Infrastructure for Digital Publishing and Academic Communication: Expanding the Model Project “Völkerrechtsblog”

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Emerging from the Working Group of Young Scholars in International Law (Arbeitskreis junger VölkerrechtswissenschaftlerInnen; AjV), the Völkerrechtsblog constitutes since 2014 a platform for digital publishing in international legal scholarship. From 2018 onwards, a position for coordinating the blog work is envisaged in order to strengthen the project and develop it further. The aim is to establish the Völkerrechtsblog as a model project in the area of scholarly publishing in the digital age. Fortifying and expanding the Völkerrechtsblog would contribute to a stronger Open Access infrastructure in German legal academia, which remains dominated by traditional media, and can help to increase its international visibility.The project comprises four elements: Firstly, it includes the professionalization of personal and organizational structures in the project that so far was built solely on voluntary staff and was organized without formal structures (1). This professionalization allows, secondly, for expanding the digital infrastructure and the provision of innovative services (2). It is the aim, thirdly, to extend collaborations and networks in order to anchor the Völkerrechtsblog more deeply in the scholarly community. On the one hand, it is the intention to involve the blog even more in existing discussions and Open Access fora, on the other hand, the Völkerrechtsblog itself would provide a forum for exchange, hosting two international conferences on the relationship between Open Access and global justice questions, once in the beginning of the funding period and once at the end. Moreover, it is planned to enlarge the format of journal cooperation, which bridges traditional and new media of publishing, pushing the idea of Open Access also within structurally conservative publication cultures. Fourthly and finally, it is the objective to develop a strategy for ensuring the sustainability of the Völkerrechtsblog.It is planned to concurrently oversee the implementation of the Open Access strategy of the Max Planck Society inside the institute as well as in the relevant frameworks outside the institute. In this role, it is the aim to shape the process strategic-academically and bring the perspectives and needs of German international law scholarship into the discussion.