Community-Centric Publishing: The ]u[ Ubiquity Partner Network

The fundamental point of the Open Access movement is the drive to make academic research as widely available as possible. This accessibility is for the benefit of multiple communities — for the academic research community, for policy makers and national governments, for the general public, and for those in the developing world. Open Access thus means not only access, but also broadening the community who can benefit from research.

When it comes to the academic community, we often talk about a ‘research ecosystem’, and the desire to make this ecosystem ‘global’: through open access, ]u[ Ubiquity strives to make publishing and disseminating research as equitable as possible to researchers from all four corners of the world.

Having a diverse research ecosystem benefits the global community, hence building a larger network of research and scholars is hugely important. However, when it comes to publishing itself, we mustn’t only think of this global picture: there must be a way to unite the global challenges of open access with the local challenges of establishing sustainable publishing programmes and systems that are led by, and for, the researchers, academics, librarians and students that run them.

The ]u[ Ubiquity Partner Network in many ways encapsulates this: borne out of a desire to allow institutions to take back control of their publishing efforts and to serve their immediate institutional community, ]u[ Ubiquity Partner Presses are able to contribute to the wider OA movement by producing high-quality, fully open access research — whilst being a part of an ever-growing, global network of university and library presses.

How did the UPN get started?

The ]u[ Ubiquity Partner Network came into being in 2014, with the establishment of the first Partner Press. Brian Hole, ]u[ Ubiquity founder and CEO, had officially begun the company two years prior in 2012, with the aim of providing affordable, high-quality open access publishing to the humanities through ]u[ Ubiquity Press. Institutions began to reach out to request the expertise and infrastructure provided by ]u[ Ubiquity, in order to run their own publishing programmes; thus, the ]u[ Ubiquity Partner Press service was created, and with it the ]u[ Ubiquity Partner Network.

Among some of the first presses to join were Stockholm University Press, University of Westminster Press, Sri Lankan Journals Online (part of the JOLs), and the book publishing arm of the University of California Press, Luminos. Today the network has grown to include over 30 presses from all over the world.

What does being a partner press involve?

The ]u[ Ubiquity Partner Press service allows institutions to manage and run their own open access publishing operations, without having to handle the technical demands. Each press has its own fully branded, easily customised web portal in any language, where books, journals, trending content, news,announcements and social media feeds can all be found in one place. Meanwhile, our team maintains the technical infrastructure, as well as providing knowledge, support and expertise with a dedicated Editorial Account Manager.

All partner presses are immediately a member of the ]u[ Ubiquity Partner Network, a network of like-minded institutions focused on the goal of open access. They are also able to play a role in the governance of Ubiquity overall through representation on our Partner Advisory Board.

Why join the UPN?

We believe that the future of Open Access, and of academic publishing as a whole, relies on institutions being able to take back control of publishing. As we continue to see news about extortionate APCs, large corporate publishers exploiting researchers, editors and journal boards, it is clear that the current system is broken.

We want to be able to be a part of the solution to this problem, and provide a service that can support academic institutions; by handling the back-office technical requirements of running an online press, we can free up the press team’s time and resources to focus on the sustaining and growing press itself.

Many of our presses clearly demonstrate that first and foremost, they serve the local community:

In our recent case study with Virginia Tech Publishing, former press manager Peter Potter discussed how library-led publishing ‘is a natural extension of the library’s mission to meet the needs of the institution’s faculty, students, and the community as a whole.’

Houghton St Press, the student imprint of LSE Press, publishes the work of students at LSE, supporting students of the institution in producing their work as high-quality digital publications that are open to a global audience.

The University of Westminster Press publishes research in areas that reflect and reinforce the strengths of the university across a range of disciplines, with ]u[ Ubiquity assisting with book publishing.

All members of the UPN are a part of multiple communities; first and foremost, their own institutional community, whether that is making their faculties’ and students’ work more accessible from a particular geographical area, or based around a particular field or value by the founding institution. They are also, in their own part, contributing to the global OA community, by producing, supporting, and opening up academic research to everyone.

]u[ Ubiquity is proud to support a major resurgence of University Press publishing, helping new presses to become established, and providing them with the capability to grow and flourish. We believe this trend will only accelerate, so please speak with us if your institution would like to join the movement!