1. Outline¶

This project implements Sandpoints, an open source framework for open and collaborative publishing. It is developed by www⁄Marcell Mars since 2019, and built as a theme for the static website builder www⁄Hugo. Both Hugo and Sandpoints are free, open source, and cross platform, and are developed in the programming language Go.

Key features:

1. Sandpoints is an open infrastructure project: it hosts open access content; it is fully open source; it relies on open source components and libraries; and allows for workflows using free and open source tools.
2. Sandpoints requires no programming. Content is added with article⁄Markdown files, which are easy to read, write, and edit, and organized in folders by type. Creating new content and compiling a website project are done with simple terminal commands, or via an online interface.
3. Sandpoints implements hypertext, including backlinks (bidirectional hyperlinks), and allows non-linear content traversal, for example via browsing ⁄internal, external, and back links, as well as ⁄keywords.
4. Sandpoints is structured around a triadic hierarchy, here this is Journal>Issue>Article.
5. Collaboration, version control, and backup are achieved via Git.
6. Sandpoints projects are fully portable. They can be copied on a USB stick and viewed offline.
7. Sandpoints can generate printable and interactive PDFs for its content (for individual entries, issues, or all the content (see article⁄Print and Cite) .
8. Sandpoints allows the integration of a library catalogue. The library is accessible at ⁄Library, or by pressing the red icon at the top-right corner of any page.

Flagship Sandpoints projects include:

• www⁄Dotawo – A Journal of Nubian Studies (academic journal published in Sandpoints since issue 7, 2020),
• www⁄Machine listening (currently archived),
• www⁄Pirate.care (a project using an earlier styling theme), and
• the recent www⁄ACADIA archive (in progress, featuring a catalogue of about 1500 articles and 2000 co-authors).

2. Sandpoints in academic publishing¶

Sandpoints was first implemented in Issue 7 of the Journal Dotawo (2020). The use of Sandpoints in academic research publishing was discussed in the editorial of that issue by Van Gerven Oei:

Starting with the present issue, Dotawo will design and publish its content via the www⁄Sandpoints platform. Dotawo contributions are formatted in www⁄Markdown syntax, thus moving away from proprietary software such as Microsoft Word and Adobe InDesign. For collaboration and version-control we employ www⁄Git rather than Google Drive or Dropbox. The online issue is created via www⁄Gitea and www⁄Hugo, which take the Markdown files from the Git repository and generate a static website from them. The result is a compact and fast website, which moreover can also be used offline. Also the typography of Dotawo is now based on open fonts. The journal is typeset in www⁄Gentium, which is released under an www⁄SIL Open Font License. The PDF output is generated by www⁄PagedJS […]. In short, all of the software used in the creation of Dotawo is now open source. Although this process demands a certain amount of flexibility of the editors, it also shows that transitioning an open access journal to open infrastructure is not only possible but also feasible.¹

3. Notes¶

• For an extended description of Sandpoints see www⁄Sandpoints Portfolio (sandpoints.org), which includes descriptions of its implementation in different projects, and related bibliography.
• www⁄Sandoints (Gitea project repository).
• See also Valeria Graziano, Marcell Mars, Medak Tomislav, Yiannis Colakides, Marc Garrrett & Inte Gloerich, 2019. bib⁄Learning from Syllabus. Institute of Network Cultures..