Further thoughts on monographs from Oxford and Cambridge
Following their collaboration last year on a joint report into Researchers’ perspectives on the purpose and value of the monograph, the university presses of Oxford and Cambridge have issued a new, supplementary report building on the results from the original survey, which asked 5,000 scholars in the humanities and social sciences for their thoughts about reading, writing, and publishing monographs. Using and engaging with monographs in a digital environment explores in more detail the three key themes that emerged from the original survey – digital options with rich content, enhanced usability, and fully functional formats. Its key findings suggest that though monographs remain a vital part of research, they are less likely to be read cover-to-cover than they are to be cherry picked for relevant chapters, with readers looking to digital formats for improved search functionality, better indexing, and access to supplementary information including datasets and multimedia.
Ingram to work with Bristol in the Americas
Bristol University Press has partnered with Ingram Academic Services, who will be providing the press with dedicated marketing, sales and distribution services across the United States, Canada, Latin America, and the Caribbean.
AUP event moves online
This year’s annual meeting of the Association of University Presses will be held online, with sessions running almost daily from June 15-26.
Open access in brief
The Open Library of the Humanities has announced four new members of its Library Partnership Subsidy system: the University of Stuttgart, the University of Eastern Finland, the University of Oslo and Mount Royal University of Alberta, Canada.
Open access publisher White Rose University Press has shared some statistics for usage of its books and journal articles in the four years since its launch. Its monographs on topics ranging from Dickens to World War Two have received more than 35,000 views and downloads, while its articles have been viewed and downloaded 93,500 times in more than 120 countries.
Knowledge Unlatched has partnered with library services provider EBSCO to service renewals for journals that move to open access thanks to institutional funding.
New journals in brief
Liverpool University Press is partnering with the University of Liverpool’s Leadership, Organisational, Professional & Academic Development Academy to launch a new open access journal, Developing Academic Practice, in late 2020. The journal aims to provide an open platform to disseminate innovations in the support of learning and teaching.
The University of Westminster Press is launching a new journal. Active Travel Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal aims to reduce barriers between those who are producing knowledge on active travel and those who wish to benefit from it and plans to incorporate multi-media output as well as more conventional formats.
Alastair Horne is a PhD student at the British Library and Bath Spa University.