Decentralized creation of academic documents using a Network Attached Storage (NAS) server

TL;DR

This paper explores the potential of using a NAS server to host open source academic writing tools, aiming to address issues of collaboration, security, and document management in scholarly document creation.

Contribution

It proposes a novel approach of deploying open source academic writing software on NAS servers to improve collaboration and security in scholarly document creation.

Findings

NAS hosting can enhance collaborative editing.

Open source tools on NAS improve security and access control.

Potential for more efficient academic document management.

Abstract

Scholarly document creation continues to face various obstacles. Scholarly text production requires more complex word processors than other forms of texts because of the complex structures of citations, formulas and figures. The need for peer review, often single-blind or double-blind, creates needs for document management that other texts do not require. Additionally, the need for collaborative editing, security and strict document access rules means that many existing word processors are imperfect solutions for academics. Nevertheless, most papers continue to be written using Microsoft Word (Sadeghi et al. 2017). We here analyze some of the problems with existing academic solutions and then present an argument why we believe that running an open source academic writing solution for academic purposes, such as Fidus Writer, on a Network Attached Storage (NAS) server could be a viable alternative.