Job: Research Fellow, WP4 | Community-led Open Publishing Infrastructures for Monographs (COPIM)

Salary: £33,806 - £42,800 per annum Full Time, Fixed Term Contract until 31/10/2022 Coventry University is seeking to appoint a Research Fellow within the Centre for Postdigital Cultures, Institute for Creative Cultures to support the Community-led Open Publication Infrastructures for Monographs (COPIM) project. The Centre for Postdigital Cultures (CPC), builds on the strong and distinctive track-record of scholars at Coventry University encompassing a range of disciplines in the arts and humanities. Led by Professor Gary Hall, the CPC explores how innovations in postdigital cultures can enable 21st century society to respond to the challenges it faces in relation to the digital at a global, national and local level. COPIM is a strategic international partnership led by the Centre for Postdigital Cultures consisting of world-class universities, presses, libraries and infrastructure providers. The project addresses the key technological, structural, and organisational hurdles—around funding, production, dissemination, discovery, reuse, and archiving—that are standing in the way of the wider adoption and impact of open access (OA) books. COPIM will realign OA book publishing away from competing commercial service providers to a more horizontal and cooperative knowledge-sharing approach. A Research Fellow is required to support COPIM’s PIs in the following activities: Research on the governance of collectively managed publishing infrastructures; and  Research on experimental book publishing and reuse and engagement around OA books.   We are looking for a researcher with knowledge of academic book publishing processes and current developments in open access and digital publishing. The Research Fellow will work on two research projects within COPIM. The first project focuses on the governance of open source collectively managed publishing infrastructures. The Research Fellow will assist in the creation of a model for the long-term management of consortial library funding programs, including official policies and procedures for self-governance and administrative management of the infrastructure. They will also conduct research on best practices for governing collaborative community-based book publishing projects of various scales. The second project, around experimental book publishing and strategies for reuse and engagement around OA books, includes the Research Fellow assisting in the development of experimental publishing pilots. The Fellow will also help create an online resource detailing opportunities for experimental book publishing and will assist in developing a reuse and engagement strategy for OA book publishers and scholars. Both projects will be developed by the Research Fellow with support from the project’s PIs.