Dr Samantha J. RaynerUniversity College London

@samartha @AcBookFuture#AcBookFuture

Project ProgressRLUK Members Meeting

November 20th 2015

• AHRC/BL collaboration• Call launched by AHRC Feb 2014• Project begins Oct 2014

Project team: Samantha Rayner, Nick Canty & Rebecca Lyons (UCL), Simon Tanner & Marilyn Deegan (KCL) Michael Jubb as key consultant

Context of Project

#AcBookFuture

Project Structure

Core Management GroupAdvisory Board

Stakeholders

Partners

Community Coalition

Strategy Board

Advisory Board Chair: Professor Kathryn Sutherland(Professor of Bibliography and Textual Criticism, Oxford University)

Strategy Board Chair:Anne Jarvis(Cambridge University Librarian)

Starting Point

#AcBookFuture

To examine the roles and purposes of academic books to serve scholarship and wider learning

To examine and analyse the dynamics of academic book production, curation, and use

To investigate and assess the opportunities and challenges associated with technological developments

(v ia 2 phases o f ac t i v i ty )https://academicbookfuture.wordpress.com/

“What do scholars want?” We all want our cultural record to be comprehensive, stable, and accessible. And we all want to be able to augment that record with our own contributions.Jerome McGann, Sustainability: the Elephant in the Room. Paper for the 2010 Conference, Digital Humanities Scholarship: The Shape of Things to Come.

Aims of the Project

“It is expected that this project will have a significant impact on a wide range of stakeholders in research, library and publishing communities and generate new evidence and dialogue that will inform policy and national approaches to this important area of scholarly communications.” 

- AHRC Press Release, 19th August 2014

In other words…

This project facilitates conversation with and between all stakeholders in the academic book:

- Academics- Publishers- Learned Societies- Librarians- Booksellers- Policy-makers

To interrogate and reflect current and emerging issues around the academic book and its contexts.

So far…

The Project has engaged with:• 22 publishers• 12 libraries • 40 academic institutions • 3 bookselling chains• 24 organisations and societies• Over 200 individual collaborators

So far…

The Project Team has also:• attended over 30 events • given over 20 talks• helped facilitate over 60 events and mini-projects • published 25 blog posts, with an article and collection of essays published this month

Project activity has extended across several countries, including:• UK, Japan, USA, Canada, Australia, Spain• Italy, Germany, Sudan, The Netherlands, Iceland, India

Examples and Highlights

• University of Nottingham -SOFT Project Sprinting to the Open FuTure

• University of Lincoln - [im]Possible Constellations: Publishing in the digital age

• Katharine Reeve, Bath Spa Uni – Editors in Academic Publishing

• International Arthurian Society – Iconic Books• Anthony Watkinson – The Academic Book in North

America• Scottish Graduate School for the Arts and

Humanities – Training Camp – Peer Review• New University Presses – Conference, March 2015• The Future of Academic Bookselling – Conference,

April 2015

Knowledge Unlatched

• A collaborative, award winning initiative between global library community and publishers to develop a sustainable route to OA for books

• Opportunity to make OA monographs a reality • Participation costs less than purchasing

hardbacks or ebooks• A space to learn together

THE UNIVERSITY PRESS REDUXUniversity Presses Conference

Hosted by Liverpool University Press | 16-17 March 2016 | University of Liverpool

Alison Mudditt Director, University of California Press

Prof. Mark LlewellynDirector of Research, Arts and Humanities Research Council

Dr. Steven Hill Head of Research Policy, Higher Education Funding Council for England

Alison ShawDirector, Policy Press at the University of Bristol

Marike SchipperDirector, Leuven University Press

Dr. Samantha RaynerUCL, Principal Investigator, Academic Book of the Future

Charles WatkinsonDirector, University of Michigan Press

Eelco Ferwerda Director, OAPEN

Peter BerkeryExecutive Director, Association of American University Presses

Investigating the REF2014

#AcBookFuture

REF 2014 submissions provides a rich data set as a means of learning more about the academic books created and deemed worthy of submission in the last REF cycle (2009-2014).

Focus = Main Panel D for Arts and Humanities. Within this Panel the data can be investigated by Unit of Assessment Subject Area and by Research Output Type.

Likely outcomes:Allow an identification of who are the publishers of the book submissionsOther possibilities:- author gender, book format/length etc, books per submitting institution, open access booksResults may stimulate discourseCaveats abound...

REF 2014: Looking at Unit of Assessment 30: History

1657 Books in the following output types Authored Books (1320), Edited Books (290) and Scholarly Editions (47)

295 unique Publishers found

Top 10 most used Publishers = 930 books or 56%

258 Publishers (87%) had 5 or fewerbooks submitted

171 Publishers (57%) had one book submitted – mostly non-UK

761 books submitted (46%) were from a University Press. Outside the top 5 these were

mostly non-UK publishers.

Initial draft data – subject to change © Simon Tanner, 2015

Publishers with >10 books submitted

213 Oxford University Press162 Cambridge University Press143 Palgrave Macmillan98 Manchester University Press74 Ashgate70 Routledge52 Boydell & Brewer51 Yale University Press40 Brill Academic Publishers27 Continuum International Publishing27 Edinburgh University Press21 I B Tauris21 Pickering & Chatto20 Harvard University Press19 Bloomsbury Publishing16 Penguin14 Allen Lane14 British Academy/Oxford University Press14 Liverpool University Press14 University of Wales Press12 University of Chicago Press11 Reaktion Books

Source: #AcBookWeek

Source: #AcBookWeek

Source: #AcBookWeek

Source: #AcBookWeek

Source: #AcBookWeek

Source: #AcBookWeek

Source: #AcBookWeek

Source: #AcBookWeek

Source: #AcBookWeek

Source: #AcBookWeek

Source: #AcBookWeek

Source: #AcBookWeek

Source: #AcBookWeek

Source: #AcBookWeek

Source: #AcBookWeek

Source: #AcBookWeek

Source: #AcBookWeek

Source: #AcBookWeek

Source: #AcBookWeek

Source: #AcBookWeek

Source: #AcBookWeek

“Academic Book Week has provided an opportunity for the University Bookshop to take centre stage as a place of discussion on the future of the academic book”

Alan Staton, Booksellers Association

“   We’ve seen Academic Book Week evolve into something powerful, engaging, interactive, thoughtful and at times controversial. My favourite part of this week? Evidence that the academic book is alive and kicking.”

Suzanne Kavanagh, ALPSP

Academic Book Week 2015 could not have come at a better time to celebrate our industry and -  as we move into 2016 I’ve no doubt that in a year’s time we’ll be back here with as much, if not more debate, passion and indeed even more to celebrate.

Emma House, Publishers Association

Source: #AcBookWeek

Some Key themes emerging from Academic Book Week:• Where will the impetus for change come

from?• Confusion about OA models• What will value be defined as in an OA

world?• Concerns about “digital death” through

lack of adequate preservation• ECRs questioning shapes of outputs, like

the PhD• Need for technology to create a better

reading experience for academic texts• Physical book is still needed alongside

ebooks

Some brief reflections & directions from Michael Jubb’s research for the Project

#AcBookFuture

Sales, acquisitions, licensing etc models. Neither publishers nor librarians nor aggregators/intermediaries are satisfied with current models, especially for e-books, despite recent experimentation. Further examination of current models, the constraints on all sides, and how they might be eased, could help to signal ways forward and promote the further use of e-books

Relationships between publishers, intermediaries, libraries and retailers. There is considerable concern both from publishers and libraries about the complexities of the supply chain to end-users, and about the concentration in the intermediary market. Further examination of the relationships between the different kinds of agents in the supply chain could help to point ways to reduce complexity and thus to ease those concerns.

Some brief reflections & directions from Michael Jubb’s research for the Project

#AcBookFuture

The role of books in the digital scholarly infrastructure. Books remain a critical part of the scholarly infrastructure in analogue form. But we have not yet clearly articulated how to present the broad range of scholarly resources in the humanities in an effective and user-friendly way, integrating ‘books’ into the wider range of resources and tools. Further examination of this issue could provide powerful insights into how research in the arts and humanities might most effectively develop for the future.

Incentives to publish books. No crisis in Scholarly Publishing.There seem to be powerful incentives to write and to publish books, even as volumes of sales of individual titles fall; and there is concern that too many books with little chance of significant sales or readership are being published. Further examination to develop more evidence is needed.

CALL FOR CONTENT: BOOC

Outputs of the research projectPeer reviewed content published as a ‘live’

book on platform hosted by UCL Press

PresentationNon-linear content presentation

SubjectsConcentrates on all aspects of academic

publishing and its future e.g. peer review; role of the editor; bookshops of the future;

libraries; open access; digital publishing and technology

FormatsFormats may include: videos, blogs,

podcasts, short monographs and articlesAuthors invited from all areas of the academic

publishing and bookselling communities

AuthorsAuthors invited from all areas of the academic

publishing and bookselling communities

Launch DateThe BOOC will be launched in spring 2016 and new content will be added throughout the

year.

The AHRC/British Library Academic Book of the Future Project invites submissions for its BOOC (Book as Open Online Content)

To propose content, email 500 word (max.) abstracts to:Dr Sam Rayner

Principal Investigator of the Academic Book of the Future ProjectEmail: s.rayner@ucl.ac.uk

Project Team’s Recommendations

#AcBookFuture

The OA landscapeWe urgently need a portal that allows for information about different OA publishers and initiatives to be easily obtained, compared, and understood.

Provide training for academics at every career level In copyright and IP; in OA; in how to peer review effectively; in how to work with librarians and publishers to create outputs that can be found easily, preserved safely, and configured innovatively

Build more cross-community projects, like AcBookWeek, so that deeper understanding of the interdependencies between sectors can push progress forwards.

Project Team’s Recommendations

#AcBookFuture

More discipline specific research: Each discipline has different needs and uses for texts. Closer working with Learned Societies needed.

Widening Accessibility to the Academic Book: Via further investigation into the crossover book, a case study of the Academic Book in the Global South, and looking at accessibility for the visually impaired.

“ It is essential that the arts, humanities and social science community takes a lead in shaping thinking about these issues to ensure that the models that emerge sustain and improve the communication of scholarly information rather than distorting it.”

Crossick Report, p.11.

#AcBookFuturehttp://www.hefce.ac.uk/pubs/rereports/year/2015/monographs/

Why get involved?

“ In the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.”

Charles Darwin #AcBookFuture

Finally…

@AcBookFuture #AcBookWeek

The Academic Book of the Future

http://academicbookfuture.org/

s.rayner@ucl.ac.ukrebecca.lyons@ucl.ac.uk

http://acbookweek.com/