Open Access
There is a growing interest in the academic community in open access publishing. It is widely felt that the results of publicly funded research should not be available only to paying subscribers. Whilst this feeling predominates in the area of scientific research, published in journals, the open access movement is rapidly turning its attention to the humanities.
In scientific journal publishing there are a number of open access models being trialled. Publishers obviously add value to research, in the form of enhancements such as proof reading and copy editing, but also through the application of their imprimatur.
The most common form of open access publishing involves publication fees levied by publishers and paid by individual academics, their departments, or their funding bodies. Other publishers are trialling simultaneous publication in open access and paid access, in the belief that the library community will continue to pay for quality research publications.
Humanities research tends to be published as monographs rather than in journal articles, and as such the financial models for open access publishing will need to be very different.
Manchester University Press, as a partner of the University Presses at Amsterdam, Firenze, Copenhagen, Goettingen and Lyon, is involved in a project, funded by the European Union, investigating open access publishing models for humanities monographs. The project, called OAPEN, intends to develop and implement an Open Access publication model for peer reviewed academic books in the Humanities and Social Sciences. This Open Access publication model will also serve as a model in other scientific domains and improve the spread of European research results.
The project aims to achieve a sustainable European approach to improve the quantity, visibility and usability of high quality academic research and foster the creation of new content by developing future-oriented publishing solutions, including an Online Library.
OAPEN addresses the needs of small to medium enterprises and not-for-profit publishers and seeks to offer solutions to both publishers and others stakeholders, such as authors, libraries, research funding bodies, and policy makers.
OAPEN will also aggregate content from other publishers in the Humanities and Social Sciences in order to expand the available Open Access content by achieving critical mass and building up the OAPEN European Digital Library.
The project is the first of its kind.
It is vital that not-for-profit University Presses are involved at this early stage.
Trends in Scholarly publishing
While the current, rapidly changing world requires increased research and improved dissemination in the Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS), availability of and access to academic publications in many areas of HSS is actually fragmented and limited. Language barriers in Europe limit the national markets for publications and add to their costs. The high and increasing costs of international STM publications cut into the available budgets of University Libraries for HSS publications. This means smaller print runs and higher costs, resulting in higher barriers for new publications.
Faced with the serious economic restrictions surrounding the publication of scholarly books, University Presses all over the world have begun to recognise digital publishing as a viable alternative to disseminate works that would otherwise not have been published and as an important tool to increase the availability of works that otherwise would only have a very limited distribution. Adequate online access to research output in HSS is crucial for research, high-quality education and lifelong learning - essential factors for transforming the EU with its rich book-publishing tradition in into a leading knowledge society.
However, many of the smaller and medium sized society- and university-publishers – in most cases operating on a not-for-profit basis - have difficulties in adopting the full potential of digital publishing and its corresponding new business models. Digital Open Access publishing has focused almost exclusively on STM and journals. Monographs, edited volumes and archival materials, quintessential to the HSS, have so far largely been neglected.
Open Access (OA) funding models for digital editions in combination with digital printing techniques can lower the cost of publishing and distributing academic books and add to their retrievability and use. Aggregation of current, high quality HSS publications in a freely accessible online library based on common standards can improve impact and relevance of HSS publications and contribute to European policies stemming from the Lisbon Agenda.
Recently, Ithaka published its extensive report on ‘University Publishing in the Digital Age’ in which it is suggested that the online publication role of university presses should be expanded and that presses should collaborate on many functions related to online publication, as is already common in journal publishing. A collaborative electronic publishing infrastructure of presses and libraries will save costs, build scale, leverage expertise and promote innovation. Added value of orchestrated effort not only makes sense for common infrastructure but goes for the respective content as well. The single open access publication gains value from better visibility. Scientific relevance however is achieved if single publications appear in larger coherences such as a subject-specific platform.
A clear example of the move towards digital publishing in HSS has been the revival of Rice University Press as the first fully digital university press in the United States and subsequently the announcement that Stanford University Press will be collaborating with Rice to publish a series of books reviewed by Stanford.
The case of Rice University Press also demonstrates recognition of the possible advantages of digital formats for enriched publications, including features and material that up till now have not been possible in traditional publishing. This can be seen as another cause of change: the use of information and communication technologies inspiring innovations in research (‘e-science’), requiring new publication formats.
Digital publishing at Manchester University Press
MUP has been active in the area of digital publishing since 1999, when it launches online versions of its journals for institutional subscribers. In this way it was a very early adopter of the online publishing model.
MUP currently has about 110 ebooks, sold through various channels, and has plans to digitise a further 300 to 400 books. Furthermore MUP currently has around 150 titles regularly reprinting as Print on Demand.
MUP is also a keen supporter of the Google Book Search programme, and has about 90% of its output available in this way. Although this is not true Open Access publishing it shows a dedication to the concept that the knowledge published should be made available to the public as easily as possible, whilst maintaining a successful business model.
MUP is currently in negotiation with a number of partners over the digitisation of not only all in-print books, but also their archive. It is intended to release the archive in a semi-open access format, with the possibility of bringing titles back into print as print on demand.
MUP is working with the John Rylands University Library on their repository project.
Open Access Publishing in European Networks (OAPEN)
In May 2007 The OAPEN consortium was launched; a collection of partner University Presses from Amsterdam, Manchester, Lyon, Goettingen and Copenhagen. The partners* are all scholarly publishers predominantly active in HSS and book publishing. Jointly the members have digital publishing programmes, conduct experiments with OA, make use of digital repositories, publish in different European languages, have a worldwide distribution network (including the USA), and cooperate closely with university libraries. Recently Firenze University Press joined the consortium, and discussions with other publishers are ongoing.
At the request of the European Commission, these partners have developed a joint proposal in the category “Targeted Projects” in the eContentplus programme. The 30 months project is dedicated to develop and implement an OA publication model for academic books in the Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS). The project aims to achieve a sustainable European approach to improve quantity, visibility and usability of high-quality OA content. It will foster the creation of new content by developing future-oriented publishing solutions, including an online library dedicated to HSS. In order to expand the content of the online library and achieve critical mass, OAPEN will also aggregate content from other publishers in HSS. The proposal was submitted in October, 2007.
The OA model that will be developed (the first of its kind) aims to create an OA-publishing platform in combination with an online library, that can be used by academic publishers and research funding institutes, based on their respective needs. In this sense OAPEN will play an integrating and marketing role for open access publishing of HSS books. It will develop and foster the visibility of this publishing model to all stakeholders, i.e. readers and authors, institutions, publishers, librarians and research funding organizations.
The basic e-publishing infrastructure already exists. In order to establish an online library for HSS publications, funding is needed for scientific studies, development of OA models and e-publishing services, and the development of tools and services connected to the publication infrastructure. According to the European Commission the project is in line with the objectives of the chosen action.
MUP’s Position on author self-archiving
Although the situation is constantly changing and being monitored, MUP is currently happy to support authors wishing to self-archive the final drafts of their books and articles at their own institution’s online repositories. Should authors require this in writing they are encouraged to contact their editor at MUP.