University presses launch new framework for equity, diversity, and inclusivity
Seventeen university presses across the UK and Ireland have launched a new framework for collaboration on Equity, Diversity, and Inclusivity. Members each make six key commitments: to share best practice; to collect demographic data to assess and benchmark areas for improvement; to create and share a programme of ongoing training; to promote and demonstrate transparency and equal opportunity in recruitment and progression; to collaborate with groups currently underrepresented in the industry to increase awareness of career opportunities; and to have a designated lead for EDI meeting regularly with leads at other presses.
The initiative’s founding members comprise the UK presses at Bristol, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Goldsmiths, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Oxford, UCL, Wales, and Westminster; Ireland’s Cork and University College Dublin; and the UK-based international divisions of the American presses Harvard, MIT, Princeton, and Yale.
Edinburgh passes revenue milestone a year ahead of schedule
Edinburgh University Press has issued its annual report for the financial year from August 2020 to July 2021, revealing that the publisher has hit its target of achieving turnover of £4m a year ahead of schedule. Book sales were up 9% on the previous year, with 256 titles published and 344 commissioned, while the press’s fifty journals brought in more than £1m in revenue, with downloads up by more than a quarter.
F1000 to create first Latin American research hub
F1000 has partnered with Latin American academic digital content and services provider GDC Difusión Científica to create the region’s first dedicated open research publishing hub. GDC Open Research in Latin America will be hosted on F1000’s publishing platform F1000Research and promises to offer a streamlined submission process, speedy publication, and enhanced discoverability, plus additional support from F1000’s editorial team. The multidisciplinary hub will facilitate the publication of Latin American Studies, while supporting the work of Latin American scholars in other fields including Art, Literature and Culture, Politics and International Relations, Studies in Latin American Society, and Medicine and Public Health.
In brief
The Association of University Presses has been awarded a Level One Digital Humanities Advancement Grant from the American National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to study the effect of open digital editions on the sales of print monographs. Findings from the study, led by John Sherer and Erich Van Rijn, will be shared publicly.
Taylor & Francis has appointed Stacy Scott as its first Accessibility Officer; Scott was previously Bookshare and Publisher Relationship Manager for the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) and has considerable professional experience in the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) sector.
Liverpool University Press is launching a new translation series, World Writing in French: New Archipelagoes, in partnership with The Winthrop-King Institute; the series will publish contemporary French-language fiction, travel writing, essays, and other prose translated for an English-speaking audience.
Professor Martin Eve has received an Open Scholarship Award from the Canadian Social Knowledge Institute (C-SKI) and its partners in recognition of his work for The Open Library of the Humanities.
Alastair Horne is a PhD student at the British Library and Bath Spa University.