A new book tackling the research publishing open access landscape his published this week. Authored by Samuel Moore, Cambridge University Library / Cambridge Digital Humanities Researcher, and ex-PLoS editorial team staff, Publishing Beyond the Market argues that the move to open access should focus less on the free accessibility of research outputs and more on who controls the publications and infrastructures for scholarly communication.
Instead of analysis and rehashing the models on the surface of the industry, this book goes into the nature of who controls the publications and infrastructures for scholarly communication, critiquing the failings and private-commercial interests that have derailed the original researcher-led, public commons, intentions of the movement.
With chapters on the ‘Careless Policy Interventions’ of the PlanS initiative, Radical Experiments in Scholar-Led Publishing and Infrastructuring the Open Access Publishing Commons, it is grounded in the ethos of the free culture movement, Budapest initiative, and work of the Radical Open Access Collective of libraries and institutions, and already, at just a few pages in (though i am trying not to derail my own day by reading too much!), has an incredibly engaging writing style of passionate objectivity that cuts through the corporate-speak that generally overwhelms this discussion.
The book explores the importance of collectivity and democratic governance within the transition to open access publishing. It suggests that developing a commons-based, scholar-led publishing landscape through a series of presses that are each managed by working academics could offer a productive counterpoint to marketised systems of open access and subscription publishing. In weaving themselves together in order to “scale small” these publishing initiatives would act as a counter-hegemonic project based on mutual reliance and care.
By illustrating how these projects build toward a commons-based publishing future, and how they may complement other approaches to publishing within university presses and libraries, the book culminates in an argument for the infrastructures, policies, and forms of governance needed to nurture such a collective vision.
The book is publshied by University of Michigan Press, in digital PDF, ePub and hardcopy paperback formats. Digital formats can be downloaded for free;, Paperback edition can be ordered from the UoM Press site here.
Reference:
Publishing Beyond the Market: Open Access, Care, and the Commons
Samuel A. Moore
University of Michigan Press
https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.11781635
978-0-472-90522-5 (open access)
978-0-472-05763-4 (paper)