Platforms

Throughout the writing project, you will use various technology platforms to write, edit, review, and disseminate the work. The group should first determine a shared writing and editing platform.

Depending on how much institutional support you have for the project, you may need to select platforms to design the publication’s layout and deliver the publication to readers. Consider your options during the planning process. Information in digital repositories may need to be updated over time, so consider how you would make a change in the future as you think about deposit.

Choosing Platforms

You may have one platform to rule them all or a chain of software that serves different functions as you write, edit, design, and publish your work. I have elaborated on the platform needs during different parts of the workflow, and provided a chart of platforms that meet those needs with various considerations for adopting them.

Writing and Editing Platforms

The best writing and editing platform is the one that the majority of your group already knows how to use. Note that even when people are excited about learning new technology, learning new technology is a separate activity from writing, and it will take separate time and capacity.

The user interfaces and functionality of many longstanding text editors can be overwhelming and many text editors include unnecessary features for the purposes of your project. Consider these primary features when choosing a platform that will meet as many publishing workflow needs in one package as possible.

• There is a commenting feature
• There is a way for people to comment or suggest edits without having to render and share a new file
• There is a way to turn access to the document on or off
• Built-in version control is essential.

I have used Google Docs most often for writing, editing, and community review because it was the lowest-friction choice for all of the writing teams I’ve participated in, but there are many other collaborative writing and editing tools. As of late 2025, almost all of the platforms in Appendix 4 offer options that are no cost to the user, although some no-cost solutions require technical confidence to implement, and others require giving up privacy. Microsoft 365 both requires a paid license and requires giving up privacy, but is commonly available through all types of organizations, so I have included it.

Different disciplines vary in which applications are most popular for their writing and presentation needs, so ask around to find out what your peers are using. Networked platforms like Cryptpad, NextCloud, Google Docs, or Microsoft 365 will enable the group to easily comment on each other’s drafts and control versions.

Non-networked platforms like LibreOffice or Microsoft Office are possible but not recommended for collaborative writing because of the additional labor required to comment on drafts and track versions when there are many collaborators.^[1] If you choose to use non-networked platforms to draft and share documents, you should set timeline and work scope expectations that include additional capacity for bringing drafts together, tracking versions, and managing a central repository of documents. One could use the principles and practices of collaborative writing and community review described in this guide to administer in-person reviews with paper copies, or other more creative digital interpretations and format deliveries for writing and reviewing together. But in practice, the sample workflow envisions a digital networked document with community review features built into the chosen writing platform.

See Appendix 4 for a comparison of some writing and editing platforms available in 2025.

Layout and Typesetting Platforms

There is a broad spectrum of activity you can undertake with layout and typesetting. You can go as simple as using a document’s default formatting settings, adding a cover page with a visual, and exporting it to a PDF.

The author groups for Legal and Ethical Considerations for Born-Digital Access and Good Practices for Acquiring Email used similar layout and typesetting workflows. They collaboratively wrote, reviewed, and edited in Google Docs. Then they used Adobe InDesign to set text and layout, with one person fulfilling the role of layout manager. The layout manager sent the staged draft back and forth to the group for review, and implemented edits that the group identified.

For another example, when I worked at Educopia Institute, we used Google Docs to write, edit, review, and publish. We added a cover page and exported the document to PDF with Google Docs. We minted a DOI in Zenodo, and delivered the publication via our primary access repository, the Educopia Institute website (or if we were supporting a hosted community, via their community website).

See Appendix 5 for a comparison of some layout and typesetting platforms available in 2025.

Access Repositories

Deposit your work in a repository that serves you a digital object identifier (DOI).

Depositing a static file (like a PDF) to a repository and minting a DOI is important to establish provenance and increase the likelihood of preserving your work over time.

Open access repositories solve for access and sometimes preservation, but they don’t necessarily help people to discover your work. Consider producing a version of your publication that is full text searchable via consumer search engines and crawled by chatbot tools.^[2] This may mean creating an additional access repository, such as a website.

See Appendix 6 for some open access repositories available in 2025.

Platform Accessibility

As you select platforms, the accessibility reviewer should consider the accessibility needs of team members who will work on the platforms. Ask if anyone has platform accessibility needs, and test potential platforms for the features that are required or preferred on your team.

As you select a layout and typesetting platform and an access repository, consider user accessibility needs. Platforms that have accessibility features built in will make the accessibility review more feasible down the road.

Section508.gov provides tips and tools for testing accessibility in platforms.