Standards in Russian book publishing: Features of application and implementation

Abstract

The article examines modern publishing standards in force on the territory of the Russian Federation, provides the list of the most important GOST standards for employees of the publishing sector, names the causes of non-compliance by Russian publishers with the standards in the preparation of book products, and shows ways to resolve the current situation. The conditions for the putting of GOST standards into effect, the complexity of their application, and the contradictions between them are analyzed. The article raises the problem of searching for updated GOST standards and/or those put into effect instead of outdated ones, and the question about the recommendatory nature of the standards, which allows unscrupulous publishers to violate GOST standards with impunit. The authors believe that, in order to speak about the high culture of editions and publications in Russia, it is necessary to regard the SIBID standards as mandatory requirements. On the basis of the undertaken analysis of the practice of applying the standards in the Russian book publishing, the expediency of applying the existing standards, adapting them to the modern publishing environment, etc., options for interaction between GOST developers and practical publishers, ways to consolidate the professional publishing community on the basis of the RBC platform in order to discuss topical issues of book publishing, testing new and updated GOST standards, refining of the existing standards by practical publishers are proposed. The authors of the article believe that the possibility of such a dialogue will improve the situation with Russian book publishing and will quickly remove contradictions in the GOSTs because only the compliance with publishing standards will allow publishers to maintain a high publication culture and book quality, and therefore will contribute to the creation of the professional image in the publishing industry and the publishing house reputation as a whole. The authors are convinced that it is necessary to have an open access to information about the introduced GOST standards at the stage of their development/implementation/testing, to indicate the developers of the standards, and to give an opportunity of giving a feedback to them (which means the creation of a centralized system of interaction within the professional community (e.g., on the RBC website)); that the changes in the standards should become predictable, expected and systematic, allowing to gradually introduce new standards and promptly make corrections to GOST before it is put into effect. All the theoretical provisions of the article are supported by the real examples from publishing practice. Also, as a part of the undertaken research, a survey was conducted among the students of the Ural Federal University (Yekaterinburg) related by the nature of their future activities to the SIBID standards. The survey has shown that there is currently an urgent need to involve practitioners in the development of new GOST standards. The authors declare no conflicts of interests.