Event Description
In the 10 years since UCL Press launched as the UK’s first fully open access university press, the open access landscape has changed considerably, with other new OA presses launching, the development of numerous OA initiatives supporting monographs, new funder mandates and a demonstrable shift in the perception of OA from a niche activity to a mainstream one, adopted by publishers large and small. An impressive number of OA books have been published in the last 10 years, with over 13,000 listed on JSTOR’s OA monographs platform and 30,000 on OAPEN’s. With so many OA books in circulation, the sector is seeing impressive download figures that demonstrate the global reach of OA books, with benefits for institutions, authors, policy makers and the wider public. This panel celebrates the progress made with OA monographs during the last 10 years as well as touching on the challenges to come. Featuring key actors in university press publishing, open access, libraries and funding, the panel will debate what the sector needs to do next to drive the growth in OA monographs further, as well as addressing the financial crisis in the sector that is affecting universities’ funding priorities and the humanities and social sciences, the backbone of monograph publishing.
