Simon Davies
@simonfd.bsky.social
Publishing Manager, @themhra.bsky.social
Co-editor of the MHRA Style Guide
Posting about scholarly publishing • History and future of the book • Book design, typography, typesetting 📚
Also work on the history of witchcraft & magic 🌒
• Views here my own
Co-editor of the MHRA Style Guide
Posting about scholarly publishing • History and future of the book • Book design, typography, typesetting 📚
Also work on the history of witchcraft & magic 🌒
• Views here my own
'Declining this request sparks joy in me' 😅
January 16, 2026 at 11:56 AM
'Declining this request sparks joy in me' 😅
Hell University! (Where the students wear uniforms?)
For academics who work there it's indistinguishable from any regular UK or US university
www.youtube.com/watch?v=jINH...
For academics who work there it's indistinguishable from any regular UK or US university
www.youtube.com/watch?v=jINH...
HELL UNIVERSITY Official Teaser | Streaming this February 6 only on Viva One
YouTube video by VIVA TV
www.youtube.com
January 16, 2026 at 11:15 AM
Hell University! (Where the students wear uniforms?)
For academics who work there it's indistinguishable from any regular UK or US university
www.youtube.com/watch?v=jINH...
For academics who work there it's indistinguishable from any regular UK or US university
www.youtube.com/watch?v=jINH...
These lines from Edwin Grabhorn, renowned San Francisco printer, writing in 1948, now seem bitterly ironic in light of what Silicon Valley has done from the area.
Rather than ‘illumination’ we’ve got the exact opposite
Rather than ‘illumination’ we’ve got the exact opposite
January 16, 2026 at 10:01 AM
These lines from Edwin Grabhorn, renowned San Francisco printer, writing in 1948, now seem bitterly ironic in light of what Silicon Valley has done from the area.
Rather than ‘illumination’ we’ve got the exact opposite
Rather than ‘illumination’ we’ve got the exact opposite
Got this as a present for my sister at Xmas, because she loves the poem: Bruce Rogers’s edition of ‘The night before Christmas’.
This copy had a gift card from(?) BR himself in 📖
This copy had a gift card from(?) BR himself in 📖
January 15, 2026 at 1:46 PM
Got this as a present for my sister at Xmas, because she loves the poem: Bruce Rogers’s edition of ‘The night before Christmas’.
This copy had a gift card from(?) BR himself in 📖
This copy had a gift card from(?) BR himself in 📖
The trend in scholarly publisher policies on ‘AI’ is to ask authors to disclose usage. But why? What will be done with that information, even if it could be guaranteed that all authors will be honest? (Never mind that those most likely to use AI are the least likely to be honest)
January 15, 2026 at 10:34 AM
The trend in scholarly publisher policies on ‘AI’ is to ask authors to disclose usage. But why? What will be done with that information, even if it could be guaranteed that all authors will be honest? (Never mind that those most likely to use AI are the least likely to be honest)
‘But it is not your own Shire,’ said Gildor. ‘Others dwelt here before hobbits were; and others will dwell here again when hobbits are no more. The wide world is all about you: you can fence yourselves in, but you cannot for ever fence it out.’
January 14, 2026 at 11:59 PM
‘But it is not your own Shire,’ said Gildor. ‘Others dwelt here before hobbits were; and others will dwell here again when hobbits are no more. The wide world is all about you: you can fence yourselves in, but you cannot for ever fence it out.’
Both Collins and Cambridge dictionaries offline for me today. Both give the same error message, which suggests disabling adblockers, which I absolutely won't be doing. Guess I need to find a new dictionary. At this rate it won't be long before I'm back to using print dictionaries 😐
January 13, 2026 at 5:54 PM
Both Collins and Cambridge dictionaries offline for me today. Both give the same error message, which suggests disabling adblockers, which I absolutely won't be doing. Guess I need to find a new dictionary. At this rate it won't be long before I'm back to using print dictionaries 😐
Reposted by Simon Davies
fellow linguistics pals, in case you missed it, this is where we’re at right now at Essex
if you are a student or alumni, please please please make your concerns known to the university
if you are a student or alumni, please please please make your concerns known to the university
In light of the university’s plans for structural change, we want to reassure our students that the proposal to cut nearly 50% of staff in the Department of Language and Linguistics will not impact their modules for the remainder of this academic year.
January 12, 2026 at 10:17 PM
fellow linguistics pals, in case you missed it, this is where we’re at right now at Essex
if you are a student or alumni, please please please make your concerns known to the university
if you are a student or alumni, please please please make your concerns known to the university
People still trying to make ‘skeet’ happen. Not quite the most important issue rn, but still I hope we can get them to stop
January 12, 2026 at 8:52 PM
People still trying to make ‘skeet’ happen. Not quite the most important issue rn, but still I hope we can get them to stop
Very happy to see this volume finally out. Anyone opening it will immediately appreciate the enormous amount of work involved -- should be the definitive edition of these difficult but fascinating poems for many years to come.
📣Now published! A monumental new edition of George Chapman's early poems 'The Shadow of Night' and 'Ovid's Banquet of Sense'
Volume 74 in our Critical Texts series. All info here: www.mhra.org.uk/publications...
#EarlyModern
Volume 74 in our Critical Texts series. All info here: www.mhra.org.uk/publications...
#EarlyModern
January 12, 2026 at 3:13 PM
Very happy to see this volume finally out. Anyone opening it will immediately appreciate the enormous amount of work involved -- should be the definitive edition of these difficult but fascinating poems for many years to come.
Solidarity with the 2% ‘actively avoiding’ AI tools 👊
AI in Scholarly Publishing — SSP Pulse Check Report scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2026/01/09/a...
AI in Scholarly Publishing — SSP Pulse Check Report - The Scholarly Kitchen
The first of SSP’s new polling initiative, Pulse Check, explores AI in scholarly publishing and set out to understand how our communities are navigating this monumental shift.
scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org
January 9, 2026 at 11:28 AM
Solidarity with the 2% ‘actively avoiding’ AI tools 👊
If you're a commercial publisher & you want to force a new style guide on your journals, even if it's completely inappropriate for humanities journals, it would be worth putting all the information about the new style in your author guidelines *before* ordering the change.
Wouldn't you think?
Wouldn't you think?
January 5, 2026 at 4:05 PM
If you're a commercial publisher & you want to force a new style guide on your journals, even if it's completely inappropriate for humanities journals, it would be worth putting all the information about the new style in your author guidelines *before* ordering the change.
Wouldn't you think?
Wouldn't you think?
Reposted by Simon Davies
Feels like a long overdue moment for readers, authors, peers, @thebookseller.com et al. to ask publishers still using X (at least 3 of Big 5 in last month) whether it is really a platform they want to be associated with. Same goes 10x for journalists and government, btw. Delete your accounts.
This does seem just a little bit bad! Idk the sort of thing you’d think politicians might distance themselves from or something!
January 2, 2026 at 12:50 PM
Feels like a long overdue moment for readers, authors, peers, @thebookseller.com et al. to ask publishers still using X (at least 3 of Big 5 in last month) whether it is really a platform they want to be associated with. Same goes 10x for journalists and government, btw. Delete your accounts.
Facebook suggests 'here's to another incredible year of life!' as a birthday message -- coming from Zuck's outfit that wording sounds deeply sinister
December 31, 2025 at 12:23 PM
Facebook suggests 'here's to another incredible year of life!' as a birthday message -- coming from Zuck's outfit that wording sounds deeply sinister
Reposted by Simon Davies
And heaved and heaved, still unrestingly heaved the black sea, as if its vast tides were a conscience; and the great mundane soul were in anguish and remorse for the long sin and suffering it had bred.
December 31, 2025 at 9:47 AM
And heaved and heaved, still unrestingly heaved the black sea, as if its vast tides were a conscience; and the great mundane soul were in anguish and remorse for the long sin and suffering it had bred.
‘there is no condition in which education is under attack in which civil society can remain unimperiled’
www.chronicle.com/article/the-...
www.chronicle.com/article/the-...
The ‘Crisis of the Humanities’ Is Over. That’s Not a Good Thing.
All of higher ed now suffers the attacks of politics and technology.
www.chronicle.com
December 29, 2025 at 4:54 PM
‘there is no condition in which education is under attack in which civil society can remain unimperiled’
www.chronicle.com/article/the-...
www.chronicle.com/article/the-...
Authors, vote with your feet (your MSS). You absolutely do not have to publish with a for-profit publisher that is outsourcing vital work to incompetent robots. It is always a choice to do so and there are always alternatives that are just as prestigious.
At least one academic publisher is now outsourcing article production to an AI firm. How's it going?
Problems with Publishers Moving to AI-Based Production - Daily Nous
Straive is a firm that uses AI to, among other things, help publishers with various tasks "across the publishing value chain". One of its clients is Springer Nature, the publisher of many philosophy j...
dailynous.com
December 19, 2025 at 5:22 PM
Authors, vote with your feet (your MSS). You absolutely do not have to publish with a for-profit publisher that is outsourcing vital work to incompetent robots. It is always a choice to do so and there are always alternatives that are just as prestigious.
Came across ‘scaffold’ used as a verb in an article about ‘AI’ this morning. I presume they mean the execution kind
December 19, 2025 at 11:47 AM
Came across ‘scaffold’ used as a verb in an article about ‘AI’ this morning. I presume they mean the execution kind
Another wildly OTT bookplate from the C19th:
December 18, 2025 at 4:00 PM
Another wildly OTT bookplate from the C19th:
Just wonderful news. The intentions of the EUDR are good, but it would never have worked for books.
www.thebookseller.com/news/eu-parl...
www.thebookseller.com/news/eu-parl...
EU Parliament votes to exempt books from EU Deforestation Regulations
The EU Parliament has voted to exempt printed products, including books, journals, newspapers and magazines, from the updated EU Deforestation Regulations.
www.thebookseller.com
December 18, 2025 at 2:43 PM
Just wonderful news. The intentions of the EUDR are good, but it would never have worked for books.
www.thebookseller.com/news/eu-parl...
www.thebookseller.com/news/eu-parl...
I have a few of these good-looking Texts & Translations catalogues left over from an event: if anyone would like one, especially if you have a nice English Lit/Modern Languages common room to leave it lying around in, DM me and I’ll send you one! 📚
December 18, 2025 at 2:01 PM
I have a few of these good-looking Texts & Translations catalogues left over from an event: if anyone would like one, especially if you have a nice English Lit/Modern Languages common room to leave it lying around in, DM me and I’ll send you one! 📚
Reposted by Simon Davies
🔈🔈🔈 We're delighted to announce four forthcoming books!
Two in New Translations...
- 'Thomas Mann, The Later Stories. 1925–1953', translated by Malcolm Spencer.
- 'Berthe Morisot’s Journals. Art, Literature, and her Impressionist Circle', translated by Claire Moran.
Two in New Translations...
- 'Thomas Mann, The Later Stories. 1925–1953', translated by Malcolm Spencer.
- 'Berthe Morisot’s Journals. Art, Literature, and her Impressionist Circle', translated by Claire Moran.
December 18, 2025 at 1:08 PM
🔈🔈🔈 We're delighted to announce four forthcoming books!
Two in New Translations...
- 'Thomas Mann, The Later Stories. 1925–1953', translated by Malcolm Spencer.
- 'Berthe Morisot’s Journals. Art, Literature, and her Impressionist Circle', translated by Claire Moran.
Two in New Translations...
- 'Thomas Mann, The Later Stories. 1925–1953', translated by Malcolm Spencer.
- 'Berthe Morisot’s Journals. Art, Literature, and her Impressionist Circle', translated by Claire Moran.
Thanks, Microsoft To Do, for auto-adding these dates to my to-do list -- sadly I'm a little overdue already 😰
December 18, 2025 at 12:30 PM
Thanks, Microsoft To Do, for auto-adding these dates to my to-do list -- sadly I'm a little overdue already 😰
Here's the thing about 'AI': if it was an honest, genuinely useful technology, there would be no need for companies like Microsoft or Adobe to force it on us without our consent. That proves that take-up isn't happening naturally, at least not in line with the hype.
December 18, 2025 at 12:03 PM
Here's the thing about 'AI': if it was an honest, genuinely useful technology, there would be no need for companies like Microsoft or Adobe to force it on us without our consent. That proves that take-up isn't happening naturally, at least not in line with the hype.