UKRI, in partnership with the Association of Learned Society Publishers (ALPSP), the British Academy, and the Open Access Scholarly Publishing Association (OASPA), has commissioned a project from Information Power. The project is to support book publishers in their transition to sustainable open access models, with a particular focus on learned society, subject association, and smaller specialist publishers.
The overall objective of this project is to develop advice, options, and a toolkit for learned society, subject associations, and smaller specialist publishers to help them explore and embrace open access for academic book publishing. The project deliverables will include a report and a practical toolkit. Over the course of 2024 the project team will engage with a wide range of stakeholders including publishers, libraries, funders, researchers, and supply chain partners.
Smaller publishers face challenges of scale whenever transitioning to open access, but the challenges facing book publishers extend well beyond this. Challenges can include business models, copyright, global markets, list building, payments and pricing, print, retrospective conversion, supply chain transformation, and more.
Led by an expert team assembled under the Information Power umbrella, the project brings together professionals with diverse backgrounds and deep expertise in the publishing landscape:
Lorraine Estelle – with broad experience of global library and consortial licensing, and a deep understanding of book usage metrics
Dave Jago – former Director of Publications at the Royal College of Psychiatrists
Ruth Jones – a book supply chain expert with special expertise in digital services sales.
Dr Mikael Laakso – Associate Professor in Information Systems Science at Hanken School of Economics in Helsinki and well known for his research on open access books.
Dr Ronald Snijder – CTO and Head of Research at the OAPEN Foundation.
Dr Alicia Wise – Director of Information Power and with deep experience of OA business models, digital preservation, and a global network of librarians and publishers.
The project will engage widely with stakeholders through interviews, focus groups, workshops, and surveys.
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