An Open Access Book Chapter: Final Fantasy VII - What’s in a Weapon for the Psychgeist of Pop Culture Series
by Katie Vernon, Postgraduate Researcher, Centre for Medieval Studies
Email: katie.vernon@york.ac.uk
ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7367-8168
BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/katievernon.bsky.social
Summary
The chapter ‘What’s in a Weapon’ has been produced for an open access collection of essays all about the game Final Fantasy VII. This contribution is part of a wider open access edited book collection which is aimed at both academic and public audiences. It is published through Play Story Press, a diamond open access publisher. The book series was founded with the idea that academic research should not be gatekept and should be open to all who have an interest. Personally, having seen the interest by a wider public in studies about weapons and armour of popular culture, I wanted to write a plain language piece which would be accessible to all.
Case Study
Finding diamond open access publishers in my traditional field of Medieval Studies is quite difficult. Diamond open access publishing models do not have book/article processing charges, which gold open publishers do, instead they often rely on donations to cover publishing charges. The lack of charges means diamond presses are particularly attractive to those without institutional funding. I knew that as a self-funded PhD student, finding funding to cover chapter processing charges would be a big barrier to publishing. However, I wanted to find an outlet where I could share my interest in researching arms and armour in video games, an area of medievalism I wanted to sidestep into for future research. I was therefore coming to the project with little knowledge of where to find open access publishers and I stumbled upon the Psychgeist series by chance due to my love of books and games in The Witcher series, as a collection of essays on this franchise this was their first published volume. A case study by the founder of the series, Rachel Kowert, about publishing with Play Story Press is available on the wiki. I saw that one of the contributors in the volume was a friend of a friend, who I reached out to and heard about the planned calls for papers on Final Fantasy VII.
Rather than submitting an already complete chapter to the team, there were various stages which allowed the editors to have more participation which was particularly useful for writing my first work for academic publication. I first submitted a proposal, which was accepted, then a detailed chapter plan and finally two drafts. The inputs from the editors at each stage helped me develop the academic rigour of the piece. I was blown away by the enthusiasm and kindness of the editors when working with them to produce the chapter. That they were committed to the principles of open research fed into their supportive editorial comments, which have been especially valuable for me as an ECR.
As the publication is multi-disciplinary and designed both for academics and a general interested public, the editors suggested that I change the academic language used to make this work accessible. This is not about dumbing down the work but instead making sure that there is an approachable clarity and lightness to the writing. Changing my language was certainly a challenge, as it was all too easy to accidentally slip into using academic terminology and theories. Therefore, the multiple rounds of editing, with three separate editors, has been invaluable for ensuring the right tone and appropriate language level. Through this experience I feel like I have become a better researcher and writer. Additionally, it has been a lot of fun to be able to inject my writing with humour and a more casual tone than is usually expected in academia and is something I hope to take forward into my future publications.
The benefits of diamond publications are apparent for academics and a wider interested public, but for myself such publications are essential in allowing me to share my work freely. Without the diamond model of Play Story Press, I probably would not have published this work. Such diamond presses are very quick to get academic work published, which is especially valuable to me at my early career stage. This press is particularly quick to publish due to the online format, a print on demand service, and a small proactive team which maximises their production time using templates for the book files. Furthermore, everyone I have worked with as part of this edited collection has been so enthusiastic about sharing their research interests and work, which has provided me with a very supportive academic network.
In light of this experience, I will actively seek out and prioritise diamond publishers for my research, not only to share it with wider audiences but also to work in a community of supportive and enthusiastic academics.
Links
The Psychgeist of Pop Culture series at Play Story Press
Licensing Information
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