The abundance of gray literature on the open web has created a need for the development of web publications that aid research communities by aggregating, curating and redistributing material of value to that community. The use of technologies, like the PressForward plugin, makes this possible for those with only modest time and labor to dedicate to the publication.
This report outlines the findings of the PressForward Project’s three years of research on best practices in developing community publications. We describe the intellectual goals, publication venues, editorial processes and workflows necessary to consider when beginning a new web publication based on a curated model of content development. We also offer our own successful prototype publication, Digital Humanities Now, as an example and discuss the intellectual and logistical decisions made during its development.