AUPresses continues to encourage careful thought, bold experimentation, and reasoned assessment of open access (OA) goals and practices, advocating broad respect for the diverse needs as well as the expert contributions of all members of the scholarly communications ecosystem.
We revised our OA position statement and charged an OA Task Force to explore the current environment of OA publishing within the membership and recommend future initiatives and research to Association leadership.
In addition to his continued service on the Universities UK (UUK) OA Monographs Working Group and participation in conversations on the UK Research Excellence Framework 2021 sponsored by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Executive Director Peter Berkery worked with colleagues at the Association of Canadian University Presses (ACUP/APUC) to monitor the Canadian SSH Research Council’s discussion of OA goals and policies, and represented our community in meetings with the US White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.
In December 2019, the Association joined with the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) and the Association of American Universities (AAU) to launch OpenMonographs.org, a website for TOME (Toward an Open Monograph Ecosystem). This project is a bold effort to change the landscape of scholarly book publishing in the humanities and social sciences, created by the 3 associations in 2017. At this writing, 37 works have been peer-reviewed, professionally edited, and published by 13 member presses:
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- California
- Cambridge
- Cincinnati
- Cornell
- Duke
- Fordham
- Manchester
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- Ohio State
- Penn State
- SUNY
- Washington
More titles are in the pipeline this spring, and more than 60 member presses in total stand ready to consider TOME-supported work. TOME is one of several experiments through which university presses are exploring Open Access monograph models and seeking greater discoverability, increased financial sustainability, and demonstrable commitment to institutional mission.