Today’s publishing environment is evolving. New University Presses (NUPs) and Academic-Led Presses (ALPs) play an increasing role in the shift in scholarly communication. In 2016 Jisc conducted a landscape study to provide a unique view of the motivations, models, policies and future direction of these new presses. This session will report on the findings of the research. It will also discuss the next steps Jisc are taking to provide support in this rapidly developing area, such as new methods of publishing and scholarly outputs and advice and best practice for existing and new presses.

1. Research & Development
SueAttewell – Head of Change FE & Skills
10April
2017
10/04/2017 New University Presses and Academic-Led Presses: the current UK landscape
Chris Keene and Graham Stone
This photo, “Stamps: lots of them!” is copyright (c) 2010 Michele Ursino and made available under a CC BY-SA 2.0 licence

2. Introduction
»Definitions
»Background
»New University Press survey
»Academic-Led Press interviews
»Recommendations
»Discussion
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3. Definitions – Library led publishing
»A “set of activities led by college and university libraries to
support the creation, dissemination, and curation of
scholarly, creative, and/or educational works”.
Library Publishing Coalition. (2016). Retrieved from http://librarypublishing.org/about-us
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4. Definitions – Academic-Led Publishing
»“a publishing initiative set-up and run by academics…
…Academic-led presses are most often not-for profit,
independent, highly ideological entities, set up to provide
an alternative publication route to the commercial
presses or to support the open access publishing of books
for example”.
Janneke Adema,Coventry University
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5. Background
»Both NUPs and ALPs appear to be a growing movement
in the UK
› Little beyond anecdotal evidence
»Jisc study informed by:
› National Monograph Strategy (2014)
› Paper from the Northern Collaboration (June 2015)
– 25 HEIs in the North of England
› Paper at the SCONUL 2015 winter conference (November 2015)
– http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/26550/
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6. Objectives
»Identify existing and future NUP/ALPs in the UK
»Learn of the motivations behind their establishment
»Determine the types of output being published
»Identify the publishing platforms being utilised and to
inform future work in this area
»Ascertain what business models are being applied
»Explore potential areas for support from Jisc
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7. New University Presses
Survey results
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8. NUP landscape study
»Survey to UK Library Directors in May 2016
»41 universities responded
› 13 New University Presses
–Giving a total for the UK of 17 (including establish presses and
those that did not respond but are known to exist)
› 12 university are considering a NUP within 5 years
› 16 have no current plans, but 4 are interested
»By 2020 there could be as many as 27 NUPs in the UK
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9. NUPs in the UK
New University Presses (based on survey results and existing data)
CardiffUniversity University of Exeter
Goldsmiths,University of London University of Hertfordshire
Kingston University University of Huddersfield
SRUC (Scotland’s Rural College) University of Surrey
UCL (including the Institute of Education) University ofWarwick
University of Buckingham University ofWestminster
University of Central Lancashire University ofYork (Music Press – UYMP)
University of Chester White Rose Libraries Consortium (Leeds, Sheffield andYork)
University of Edinburgh (library)
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10. Motivation
Theme Existing NUPs Planned NUPs Total
Demand from/for early career researchers and academics (including
supporting first time publishing)
5 3 8
Developing OA publishing 5 3 8
Supporting University’s strategy/objectives 3 1 4
To enhance the reputation of the university 1 3 4
Undergraduate research 1 2 3
Innovation/new forms of publishing 1 2 3
Moving existing internal publishing activity (including library related
research)
1 2 3
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Only 3 NUPs had public mission statements:
http://unipress.hud.ac.uk/about,us/
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ucl-press/about
http://universitypress.whiterose.ac.uk/site/about/

11. Quality measures
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
Press/ Editorial
Board
Proposal review Peer review Editorial review Camera ready
templates
Copy editing Other
(Proofreading, Anti-
plagiarism
checking, Editorial
development)
None of the above
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Established Presses

12. Staffing
»Average of those with staffing was 1.5
› However, 1 institution had 5 dedicated staff
› 4 institutions had 0 dedicated staff
»Removing this institution gives an average of 1 FTE
› Correlates with US findings
› Overlap with the ALP survey
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13. Publishing imprints and availability
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
Journals Monographs
(including
edited collections)
Textbooks Conference
proceedings
Music scores Recorded music Data Other
Fully open access, with no
subsequent paid version
nor charges for optional formats
Fully open access, with charges
for optional formats (print, PDF,
ePubs, etc)
No open access formats
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Established Presses

14. Possible future publishing
10/04/2017 UKSG Conference 2017 14
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
Journals Monographs
(including
edited
collections)
Textbooks Conference
proceedings
Music scores Recorded music Data Other
Established and those considering a press

15. Possible future publishing
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»Other formats include:
› Enhanced and experimental publications
› Videos (conferences and interviews)
› Subject-specific overlay journals
› Short-form monographs
› Grey literature (Reports)

16. Publishing formats
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0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
Print (HBK) Print (PBK) PoD PDF HTML XML EPUB Other
Exisiting Planned

17. Processing charges and licenses
»Article/book processing charges
› 9 NUPs are using fee waivers
»Licences
› 6 NUPs using CC BY
› 2 NUPs offering CC BY-NC-ND preferred CC BY
› 2 NUPs stated that it was the author’s choice to select
the appropriate CC licence
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18. Publishing services
1. A self-help consultation level, e.g. hosting of journal
software.
2. Base level where the customer does most of the work,
hosting plus some further support, e.g. licence
templates, logos, etc.
3. Intermediate where responsibilities are negotiated, e.g.
full publishing service and support for authors/editors.
4. Extensive where a full service is provided, e.g. full
publishing service and support for authors/editors.
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Adapted from Perry et al., 2011; Mattson & Friend, 2014

19. Publishing services
10/04/2017 UKSG Conference 2017 19
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
Consultation level Base level Intermediate level Extensive level
Established Presses

20. Dissemination
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0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
Institutional
repositories
Subject
repositories
DOAB OAPEN DOAJ Internet Archive Amazon/ other
sales platforms
Other Not decided
Existing Planned

21. Support and guidance from Jisc
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0.0
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
2.5
3.0
3.5
4.0
4.5
Governance/
structure
Licensing and
contracts
Financial best
practice
Peer review Distribution/
dissemination
Statistics Preservation Marketing
1 = not important
5 = really important
Existing (Average) Planning (Average)

22. Academic-Led Presses
Interview results
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23. ALP landscape study
»Interviews conducted via Skype and email
»Aimed to acquire a better understanding of ALPs
currently operating in the UK or publishing for the UK
market
»Provides an overview of the needs and future
requirements and the problems they currently face and/or
have faced in the past
»14 ALPs took part in the study
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24. ALPs interviewed
Academic-Led Presses
Counterpress meson press
electric.press Open Book Publishers
Goldsmiths Press Open Humanities Press
Language Science Press Open Library of the Humanities
Mattering Press punctum books
Mayfly Books Roving Eye Press
MediaCommons Press Ubiquity Press
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25. Motivation
»Community based, often as a reaction to the
commercialisation of scholarship
“The primary thing is to disseminate good quality humanities
research and to encourage good quality humanities research
through the provision and through the dissemination of digital
objects.” Rupert Gatti
“This press was an attempt to create a third route for academics.”
Stephen Connelly (Counterpress)
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26. Values and principles
»Changing scholarly
communication
»Extension of critical work
»Ethics of care
»Community-led
»Not for profit
»Pay and labour
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“if you don’t like
something you
need to fix it”
Martin Eve
“We want every interested
person to be able to access
scientific research in the field of
linguistics. We want publishing to
be a community enterprise”
Sebastian Nordhoff
“The primary principles that underpin the entirety of the project
have to do with the value of openness and really engaging in an
open fashion. Not just with other scholars in the process of
disseminating scholarship, but also being able to engage openly
with the broader public” Kathleen Fitzpatrick

27. Publishing fields and formats (1)
»Wide range of fields in the humanities, but also sciences
› Some ALPs specialise in a specific field
› Others welcome submissions form all fields within the humanities
»Almost all ALPs publish books
»3 ALPs publish journals
»Multimodal and experimental
› electric.press and Media Commons Press
› Others do not have the finances or technological skills
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28. Publishing fields and formats (2)
»Print and PDF is the most common format
»Mobi, Epub, HTML and XML are also used by some
“We are particularly fond of the printed book, which we are not
giving up on. In fact, I will maintain strenuously and vigorously that
the printed book has a mobility, portability, longevity, usability,
iterability and attainability, that is still incredibly useful and that
people still desire” Eileen Joy
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29. Incorporation and governance
»Incorporation, “to make it protect the individual editors from any
potential legal action” Joe Deville
»ALPs are incorporated as:
› Companies limited by guarantee
› Charities
› Non-profit
› Community interest companies
»Most have an editorial or advisory board made up of senior or
esteemed scholars
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30. Business models
»Most ALPs use multiple streams of revenue:
› Sale of books
› Institutional support
› Subscriptions/memberships
› Start-up and occasional grants
› Book processing charges
› Donations/crowdsourcing
› Freemium
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31. Platforms, dissemination and preservation
»Most ALPs use their own website or server
› Mixture of open sources and commercial, e.g.WordPress and OJS
»Lightning Source and CreateSpace are popular for production
»Dissemination is via
› Commercial platforms (i.e. Google Books and Google Play,Amazon) and
› Not-for-profit platforms (i.e. OAPEN, DOAB, DOAJ,Archive.org) but also
through social media, mailing lists and post
»However, most presses do not have a systematic preservation
strategy
› Some use either LOCKSS,CLOCKSS or Portico digital preservation services
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32. Recommendations
For Jisc and the wider community
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33. Support community building (1)
»A European Library Publishing Coalition
› Taking a collaborative approach alongside other European presses
»A typology of support levels
› Definitions of levels of support could be better defined to assist those planning
to start presses
»A publishing collective forALPs
› A collective body to bring together and support ALPs
»Support library integration
› Supporting NUPs and ALPs to link effectively to the existing academic
distribution channels
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34. Support community building (2)
»During 2016 a new university press email list was created by Megan
Taylor at the University of Huddersfield Press
› UNIVERSITYPRESS@JISCMAIL.AC.UK
»A similar effort at community building and knowledge exchange is
the radical open access collective, which, as a network, runs a
community-driven information platform on open access and
scholar-led book publishing in the HSS
› http://radicaloa.disruptivemedia.org.uk
› To be further developed in 2017
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35. Establish guidelines for setting up a press
»Justifications for starting up a NUP
› Develop a resource to allow Library Directors to make cases to senior
management
»Establish publication workflows
› Assist in establishing workflow processes
»Best practices for textbook publishing
› Overlap with Jisc Collections’ Institution as e-textbook publisher project
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36. Provide legal advice
»Support with licensing and contracts
› Creation of a set of generic licences, standardised agreements etc.
»Provide advice on incorporation
› Develop standard models and advice for ALPs
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37. Develop guidelines for preservation & dissemination
»Establish preservation guidelines
› Develop preservation guidelines and investigate agreements with suppliers
»Best practices for metadata
› Develop best practice guidelines for discovery and distribution
»Support with distribution/dissemination
› Develop basic checklist for NUPs/ALPs to ensure a consistent approach
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38. Develop future projects to support ALPs
»Set up an information platform
› An information portal for ALPs
»Aid in developing funding solutions for OA book publishing
› Grant schemes targeting small scale projects
»Support the development of an alterative marketplace
› A way to move away from dominant commercial solutions?
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39. Shared publishing platform
»Do you have a requirement for/ interest in a shared
publishing platform?
› Some institutions answered yes but qualified the answer
as a maybe
–“...would want to clearly understand the added value.”
–“…Jisc should work with existing providers..."
»There was more interest in a toolkit than an alternative
open hosting platform (from ALP comments)
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40. Best practice toolkit
»Many of the comments in the survey point towards a
toolkit approach to support NUPs and ALPs
»Much of the content could come from existing operations
› Using best practice from established presses
› Supplemented by support from Jisc, e.g. standard
licences etc.
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41. Access the report
»The final report will be made available on the Jisc website
in early May 2017
»An article by the report’s authors will be published in
LIBER quarterly in the near future
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42. Acknowledgements
»Janneke Adema, Research Fellow in Digital Media at the
Centre for Disruptive Media at Coventry University
»Colleagues at the Northern Collaboration and the
SCONUL’s Collaboration Strategy Group for reviewing the
final report
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43. Discussion
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44. jisc.ac.uk
Except where otherwise noted, this work
is licensed under CC-BY-NC-ND
Further info
Chris Keene
Head of library and scholarly futures
chris.keene@jisc.ac.uk
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Graham Stone
Jisc Collections senior research manager
Graham.Stone@jisc.ac.uk