migration Women and Migration; a vital contribution to the narrative of migration Migration has been intertwined with human life from its very beginnings. The nomadic spirit of our ancestors led them from Africa to Asia between 80,000 and 60,000 years ago, and today, human beings populate all corners of the globe [https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-great-human-migration-13561/]. Yet the impulse
Academic Publishing OBP blogs on tour We have recently contributed to two other blogs to talk about ScholarLed, the new OA consortium we have joined; and about the importance of Open Access publishing and what it can offer to authors. Catch up with those posts here! * University of Kent, Office for Scholarly Communication “Innovation in Scholarly
Academic Publishing Further Reading * An excellent Open Access quiz that covers many of the key issues https://www.lepublikateur.de/2018/08/27/open-access-quiz/ * A recently-released film about Open Access in academia, ‘Paywall: The Business of Scholarship’ https://paywallthemovie.com/ * An introduction to Open Access by Peter Suber [https://cyber.harvard.edu/~psuber/wiki/
Academic Publishing Reputation, reputation, reputation – quality control and reward systems In the past, Open Access publishing has been accused of being akin to vanity publishing or self-publishing, while the term ‘predatory publishing’ describes a phenomenon in which a publisher charges expensive fees for guaranteed publication while failing to provide peer review or even basic editing.[1] Reputable Open Access publishers
Academic Publishing Copyright and licensing – what do I need to know? When you create original work, you possess the copyright.[1] When you wish to publish that work, some publishers might ask you to sign the copyright over to them as a condition of publication, so that they can disseminate the work exclusively and therefore maximise its profitability. However, you do
Academic Publishing Green, Gold, Diamond, Black – what does it all mean? There’s a lot of jargon surrounding Open Access publication, and as with all jargon it can confuse and obfuscate. Here is a simple glossary: Diamond / PlatinumImmediate Open Access publication by the journal or book publisher without payment of a fee. Copyright may be retained by the author and permission
Academic Publishing APCs, BPCs, can I have some money please – who pays for OA? This is one of the most important questions for authors: if the reader doesn’t pay, who does? BPCs (Book Processing Charges) and APCs (Article Processing Charges) are fees levied on authors, their institutions or their funding bodies to pay for Open Access publishing (also known as author-side fees). It’
Academic Publishing What should I ask a publisher about Open Access? There are many academic publishers who publish Open Access work, including some of the most well-known such as Cambridge University Press, Harvard University Press, Oxford University Press, The MIT Press, Palgrave Macmillan, Springer, Elsevier, and so on. There are also publishers whose entire publishing output is made available on an
Academic Publishing Featured Why OBP is not participating in KU Open Funding: and why libraries should understand the reasons. Knowledge Unlatched has recently announced the launch of a new platform to fund Open Access (OA) books. In this post, we explain our concern with this platform and why we won't be participating.
Academic Publishing Ten Years of OBP: An Interview with Alessandra Tosi and Rupert Gatti (Part Two) The next ten years: “We need to show this can be different.” While Gatti and Tosi are fiercely proud of what they have built, they believe the future of OBP lies in enabling the growth of other Open Access publishers. Gatti sees this as the way to achieve significant and
Academic Publishing Ten Years of OBP: An Interview with Alessandra Tosi and Rupert Gatti (Part One) Ten years ago today Open Book Publishers [https://www.openbookpublishers.com/section/14/1] was born. Non-profit, scholar-led and now the leading UK Open Access publisher in the Humanities and Social Sciences, OBP began as a small-scale experiment, a passion project for co-directors Alessandra Tosi and Rupert Gatti. They were
Austerity Just Managing? and the articulation of Austerity The Independent has recently reported that in autumn this year, the UN Human Rights Investigator Professor Philip Alston will be researching the impact of Tory austerity measures in Britain.[1] The need for such an investigation will come as no surprise to readers of Mark O’Brien and Paul Kyprianou’
Indian literature Soso Tham and the Wisdom of Language Tales of Darkness and Light: Soso Tham’s The Old Days of the Khasis is one of the least accessed titles in the Open Book online catalogue; there is not even a Wikipedia entry for Soso Tham (1873-1940), despite his being the most prolific Khasi-language poet ever to be set
Support Us Knowledge is for Sharing: Support Us! We’re a not-for-profit Open Access academic press, and we’re dedicated to making outstanding books that are free for everybody to read. We don’t charge authors to publish with us. We don’t put our content behind paywalls. If you believe in open access publishing, now you can
Information and Empire: Mechanisms of Communication in Russia Open Access in Russia - a point of connection? Since the success of Information and Empire: Mechanisms of Communication in Russia 1600-1850 [https://www.openbookpublishers.com/product/636] edited by Simon Franklin and Katherine Bowers, and our growing number of titles that focus on Russia-related topics, we have become interested in the growing use of OPB’s titles and
Data Open Access Around the World: Tracking Our Books Using Online Statistics At Open Book Publishers, openness is at the heart of everything we do (the clue is in the name!) Recently, we’ve been working on how to present more data about our books on our website, in a more visually attractive way. We want to know as much as we
100th Book One Hundred Books: How Far Have We Come? (Part Three) Open Technology: The Future of Open Access This is the third and final part of a three-part series of blogs to celebrate the publication of our hundredth book [https://www.openbookpublishers.com/product/611]. To read the first part, click here. [https://blogs.openbookpublishers.com/one-hundred-books-how-far-have-we-come-part-one/] To read the second
100th Book One Hundred Books: How Far Have We Come? (Part Two) This is part of a three-part series of blogs to celebrate the publication of our hundredth book [https://www.openbookpublishers.com/product/611]. To read the first part, click here. [https://blogs.openbookpublishers.com/one-hundred-books-how-far-have-we-come-part-one/] To read the final part, click here. [https://blogs.openbookpublishers.com/one-hundred-books-how-far-have-we-come-part-three/] A Global Outlook:
100th Book One Hundred Books: How Far Have We Come? (Part One) Open Book Publishers was born in 2008, sparked into life by co-founder and managing editor Alessandra Tosi’s first-hand experience of the frustrations of academic publishing. The thrill of seeing her book in print was dampened by the realisation that, thanks to its exorbitant price and small print run, very
Notes From The Editor OBP Nominated for Education Award We are delighted to announce that we are 2017 WISE Awards Finalists [http://bit.ly/2jtNQ4N]! The World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) rewards organisations for their innovative and impactful approaches to today’s most urgent education challenges, and we are thrilled to be recognised alongside some very impressive projects.
