The academic monograph is under threat. Increased costs and lower print runs are impacting on the principle means by which researchers share their knowledge and disseminate their findings. The monograph is the gold standard for academic excellence in many disciplines and its effective dissemination has major implications for the UK’s research base and its international standing.
A new project called OAPEN-UK, co-funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and JISC, will explore the issues impacting upon the publishing of scholarly monographs in the humanities and social sciences. The project is taking a collaborative and real time approach to addressing the challenges, risks and potential opportunities of unfettered online access to scholarly monographs
Palgrave Macmillan, Taylor & Francis, Berg Publishers, Liverpool University Press and University Wales Press are also project partners. Each has submitted pairs of similar monographs for the project pilot. With one title in each pair randomly assigned to either the experimental group (available through open access) or the control group (available through the publishers’ standard routes to market) the pilot will, over the next three years, gather and compare sales and usage data for each group. The resulting data will provide an invaluable evidence base for the use of monographs under contrasting modes of access.
Further activities – such as annual benchmarking surveys, focus groups, interviews and surveys with research funders, authors, publishers, libraries and researchers - will allow investigation into whether an open access model for scholarly monographs could take hold in the minds of humanities and social sciences scholars, what funding policies and technical processes would need be developed to support an open access model and what the impacts of an open access model would be on key stakeholders.
David House, Chair of JISC Collections and the OAPEN-UK Steering Group, said: “It’s in all our interests to have a vibrant and innovative humanities and social science research environment. But for this we need to have scholarly communications models that match the rapidly-changing demands of the twenty-first century. This project is taking some bold and imaginative steps to look over the horizon and to explore a new publishing model. We hope OAPEN-UK will be a stepping stone towards informed decision making by a wide range of stakeholders.”
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Notes for Editors
For further information on OAPEN-UK please contact Caren Milloy, Head of Projects at c.milloy@jisc-collections.ac.uk
AHRC Media contact: Jake Gilmore, Communications Manager, 01793 416021; j.gilmore@ahrc.ac.uk
OAPEN-UK is a collaborative research project gathering evidence to help stakeholders make informed decisions on the future of open access scholarly monograph publishing in the humanities and social sciences
OAPEN-UK is partnering with publishers, research councils, authors, researchers and institutions in a practical, real time pilot that will gather a range of qualitative and quantitative data. The data will be evaluated to help stakeholders better understand the challenges and developments required to support open access scholarly monographs.
http://oapen-uk.jiscebooks.org/
The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC): Each year the AHRC provides approximately £100 million from the Government to support research and postgraduate study in the arts and humanities, from languages and law, archaeology and English literature to design and creative and performing arts. In any one year, the AHRC makes hundreds of research awards ranging from individual fellowships to major collaborative projects as well as over 1,100 studentship awards. Awards are made after a rigorous peer review process, to ensure that only applications of the highest quality are funded. The quality and range of research supported by this investment of public funds not only provides social and cultural benefits but also contributes to the economic success of the UK.