Copim's thoughts on the changes announced at PubPub | Copim

Adema, J., Barnes, L., Bowie, S., McGann, C., & Steiner, T. (2024). Copim’s thoughts on the changes announced at PubPub . Copim. https://doi.org/10.21428/785a6451.c64e3c31

On 17 July 2024, Knowledge Futures announced a new iteration of PubPub called PubPub Platform which is set to replace the current version of PubPub—now called PubPub Legacy—in May 2025. Existing PubPub Legacy users will be required to do one of the following: migrate over to PubPub Platform (for an annual hosting fee of 3500 USD); archive their PubPub content on Platform (at no cost); self-host their own version of PubPub Platform; or leave PubPub, potentially migrating to another publishing platform.

As experts in the field of open access publishing, the Copim team are often approached by authors and publishers seeking guidance on suitable publication platforms. Without hesitation, we have recommended PubPub to several small presses, journals, authors and communities, and have included the platform in our own research on open publication infrastructures. We also use PubPub for our own documentation sites (at Copim and the Open Book Collective, for one of our experimental book pilots, Ecological Rewriting, and for an important conference we organised), and so we too are questioning how this news will impact our own workflows and published content. We feel accountable to both the wider Copim community and to many of the other communities who have put time and resources into adopting PubPub who feel concerned about the impact of this recent announcement.

In this co-authored post we will share some of our initial concerns about PubPub’s announcement including thoughts around:

1. Self-hosting

2. Financial pressures

3. The importance of community governance

4. Our questions for Knowledge Futures

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