Part of the EXC 2020 Annual Conference 2025 "Futures of Doing Literature", 9–11 July 2025.

By shifting scholarly attention from the manifestation of a clearly readable text as the most accurate and authoritative expression of a work to 'fluid textual editing', editors and publishers are beginning to embrace the full range of a work's textual moments, respecting it as inherently flexible, adaptable and relational. As current practices compel critical reflection on our understanding of textual dynamics, editorial authority and the life cycle of scholarly editions themselves, it is clear that their creation and maintenance is closely tied to the political landscape of scholarly communication – including issues of governance, equitable access, inclusivity and power – as well as the economic implications of funding, labour and sustainability.

This panel will explore the engaging ways in which scholars are now fathoming the possibilities of text encoding, interface building and data management in order to move beyond a linear model of rendering texts readable as fixed products, aiming instead to establish an open-ended framework for research and publication that is receptive to multiple (even as yet unforeseen) scenarios of interaction, integration and scholarship.