AUP seeks to raise university presses’ profile
The Association of University Presses’ University Press week, which ran from November 9th-15th, focused this year on the role that university presses play in elevating authors, subjects, and – indeed – entire disciplines, bringing new perspectives, ideas, and voices to readers around the world.
Under the slogan ‘Raise UP’, the week included a gallery and reading list of more than eighty publications and projects illustrating the work that university presses do. A blog tour saw 63 posts appear in just five days, including several from UK presses, including several from Manchester and Bristol. AUP President Niko Pfund, president of OUP’s US division, stated that ‘University presses are unparalleled in the publishing world when it comes to the use of peer review and rigorous editorial processes to ensure that the books we ‘raise up’ are among the best in their subject areas.’
Two new journals for Oxford
Oxford University Press is launching a new journal, Global Studies Quarterly (GSQ), in partnership with the International Studies Association (ISA), one of the oldest interdisciplinary associations dedicated to understanding international, transnational, and global affairs. GSQ will begin publishing articles next year; one of the first fully open access journals in the field of international studies, it will become the seventh journal published by Oxford on behalf of the ISA.
Oxford has also partnered with the American Society for Aesthetics to publish the society’s journal The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism from January next year; it will also provide online access to the journal’s archives. Founded in 1942, the journal was formerly published by Wiley Blackwell.
German library joins OLH subsidy system
The Open Library of the Humanities has announced that the Technische Informationsbibliothek (TIB) has become the latest member of its Library Partnership Subsidy system. In its dual roles as the German National Library of Science and Technology and the Leibniz University Library, the TIB is one of the world’s largest specialist libraries and has long been a leading supporter of open access. Its contribution will help the Open Library of the Humanities maintain its scholar-led, community-owned, non-profit, and APC-free publishing system.
Knowledge Unlatched to distribute European Investment Bank titles
Knowledge Unlatched has partnered with the European Investment Bank (EIB) to increase the visibility and availability of the bank’s publications, comprising monographs and reports on subjects including economics and economic development, finance, banking, investment, innovation, and sustainability. Titles will be distributed through Knowledge Unlatched’s Open Services to a range of hosting platforms including OAPEN and the Open Research Library; the first batch of 57 publications has already been made available.
Policy Press wins Justice, Power, and Resistance
Bristol’s Policy Press will be adding Justice, Power and Resistance (JPR), the journal of the European Group for the Study of Deviance and Social Control, to its journals list from next year. An international, peer-reviewed journal promoting critical analysis and connecting theory, politics, and activism, JPR will be relaunched in September 2021.
Alastair Horne is a PhD student at the British Library and Bath Spa University.