Wiley launches big move into audio
Wiley has announced plans to publish more than 650 audiobooks over the next three years in partnership with RB Media, the world’s largest independent publisher of audiobook content. Titles will be drawn primarily from Wiley’s frontlist business and finance lists, and the well-known Dummies brand, supplemented by selected books from other subject areas and backlist titles previously unreleased in audio formats; many will be narrated by their authors. The first audiobooks published under the agreement will be available from stores including Audible, iTunes, and Google Play, beginning in January 2019. Audio appears an area of growing interest for scholarly publishers: Princeton University Press launched its own digital division, PUP Audio, in July, with six titles released this autumn.
Emerald launches new open research platform, honours impact
Emerald has launched a new platform for fast author-led publication and open peer review. Based upon the F1000 Research model, Emerald Open Research will facilitate the publication of research outputs ranging from original research articles to case studies and data notes, focusing at launch on six areas aligned to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. Research will usually be published within seven days of submission, after which open peer review will take place, with reviews made available alongside the articles themselves; publishing costs will be covered by APCs.
Emerald has also announced the winners of its inaugural Real Impact Awards, honouring individuals, teams and institutions who have delivered real, innovative impact bridging the gap between research and practice. Winners across four categories included Jan Godsell of the University of Warwick, for building impact through storytelling, poems, physical artwork and the media, and Research Impact Canada in recognition of its work over the past twelve years in sharing tools and building institutional capacity for knowledge mobilisation.
In brief
Peter Lang has launched a new series of peer-reviewed open access books under the title Images of Disability: Literature, Scenic, Visual, and Virtual Arts. The series will consist of edited volumes and monographs in Spanish, English and German, published online via a Gold OA model, and will be available via the Lang website and the OAPEN library.
Brill has launched two new interdisciplinary book series to its social sciences portfolio: Critical Emotion Studies is a peer-reviewed, transdisciplinary series of monographs and edited volumes dedicated to the critical analysis of emotions, while The Theory Workshop: New Frontiers in Social and Political Theory book series will publish work interweaving social and political theory.
The Palgrave Study Skills series, published by Macmillan International Higher Education for almost twenty years, has been rebranded as Macmillan Study Skills; all new titles will take on the new branding, with existing titles rebranded on reprint.
The Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg (OVGU), one of Germany’s newest universities, has joined the Open Library of Humanities’ Library Partnership Subsidy system.
Knowledge Unlatched has partnered with the Jewish Studies Special Information Service of the Frankfurt University Library and De Gruyter to make twenty titles in the field of Jewish Studies available through open access.
Alastair Horne is a PhD student at the British Library and Bath Spa University