Hi Kristy,

It is interesting that they didn’t have a problem with Google Docs to submit the book. One of the kickbacks that I usually get from people when I try to turn them on to gDocs is that “Google then owns my materials.” Given that this publisher was not concerned about this, hopefully it’ll help build a case for just using the text…and not holding on to fears about ownership.

One of challenges in writing using these tools (and conducting peer reviews) if that tools like gDocs don’t work like Word in many ways. Philosophically, you need to “wash your hands” of making sure that only your ideas make it into the paper. Writing becomes more a editing and revising process in which the goal is the best copy of the draft. You can’t waste your time holding on to individual sentences and ideas…unless you’re the last editor 😉

In terms of keeping it all anonymous for reviewers, perhaps you could share the blinded doc in gDocs and allow the reviewers to only comment on the doc. They could also download the draft in whatever format, but it would primarily be an access tool. It might actually work well. The biggest challenge will be educating and scaffolding the reviewers.

Ian