Introducing the Open Book Collective | Community-Led Open Publication Infrastructures for Monographs (COPIM)

Within the COPIM project (Community-Led Open Publication Infrastructures for Monographs), we have been working to address the challenges of funding Open Access (OA) book publishing. Our particular focus is on how to make it easier for academic libraries to support OA publishers and publishing service providers, thinking beyond Book Processing Charges. We are very pleased to announce that one of the main outcomes of this work will soon be launched: The Open Book Collective. The collective will bring together OA publishers, OA publishing service providers, libraries, and other research institutions to create a new, mutually supportive ecosystem for the thriving of OA book publishing. At the heart of the work of the Open Book Collective (OBC) will be a new platform. This platform will make it far quicker and easier for libraries and others to financially support different OA publishers and service providers via membership offerings. We’ll explain more about how the platform will work in later blog posts, as well as confirming the formal launch date of the OBC. However, today we want to do two things. First, we want to let the OA community know that we are beginning our outreach work via our social media channels and community. The OBC Twitter feed is now up and running and we will be providing regular updates both there and here on COPIM’s PubPub blog. These updates will include news on the development of the OBC community and platform. We will also publish a series of updates through our blog about the offerings that will feature on the platform, our governance structure, who is involved in the OBC, and how publishers, publishing service providers, and libraries can work with us. Second, we want to provide an overview of the overall aims of the OBC and how it fits into COPIM’s broader work and ethos.