COPIM/CEU Press Opening the Future initiative announced as a finalist in ALPSP Award for Innovation in Publishing
Posted by Tom Grady on June 23, 2021 at 1037
Central European University Press and COPIM are thrilled to announce that our collective library funding model for open access monographs - Opening the Future - has been shortlisted as a finalist in the prestigious ALPSP Awards for Innovation in Publishing.
Developed by COPIM, and initially piloted by CEU Press, Opening the Future (OtF) gives member libraries subscription access to portions of the press’ highly regarded backlist and uses the membership fees to fund future publications in open access (OA) formats. It supports the transition of smaller independent publishers to sustainable and equitable open access, while at the same time offering a new avenue for libraries to make the most of stretched budgets and to increase their collections.
ALPSP (Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers) is the international trade association which represents not-for-profit scholarly publishing, and those that work with them. They have nearly 300 member organisations across 30 countries. They’re holding their annual conference (online) on 15-17 September where industry experts will discuss accessibility, discoverability, business models, and innovation in publishing. They’ll announce the prize winner on the final day.
COPIM’s work on this has been led by Professor Martin Paul Eve (Birkbeck, University of London) who said of today’s announcement “We are seeking to help publishers convert to sustainable revenue models that will allow them to publish their books openly, without resorting to unaffordable and inequitable book processing charges. We now have two academic publishers piloting the model: alongside CEU Press, Liverpool University Press recently launched with Opening the Future and both publishers are committed to disseminating research globally. To be shortlisted for this award by our scholarly publishing colleagues is such a great honour and, we hope, is recognition that when publishers, scholars and libraries work together, it is to the benefit of all.”
Dr Frances Pinter, Executive Chair of CEU Press added “We are absolutely delighted to be an ALPSP Innovation in Publishing finalist. Publishers spend a lot of money promoting their monographs to libraries; pushing books and competing for scarce budgets. In an Opening the Future world, more resources could be devoted to solving the discoverability, accessibility and visibility issues around OA books. That is why the CEU Press took up the pilot scheme so enthusiastically; we already have enough support to fund our first OtF OA monographs and look forward to seeing the programme grow.”
COPIM and CEU Press will be presenting a summary of Opening the Future at the ALPSP conference on Wednesday 15 September and the winner(s) will be announced on Friday 17 September at the conference close.
More information
If you’d like to know more about how libraries can sign up to Opening the Future and increase their digital collections while simultaneously funding new OA books visit openingthefuture.net. If you’d like to discuss this announcement or would like more information then please contact Prof. Martin Paul Eve at martin.eve@bbk.ac.uk and/or Dr Frances Pinter at PinterF@press.ceu.edu and Anthony Cond at a.cond@liverpool.ac.uk.
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