Publishing between Profit and Public Value: Academic Books and Open Access Policies

• In Event: 338 - Section on Communication and Information Technologies Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Paper Session: Table 09.

Abstract

Since Cambridge University mathematician Timothy Gower’s public boycott of Elsevier kicked off the so-called "academic spring" in 2012, activist calls for open access academic publishing and the expansion of the scholarly knowledge commons through new digital technologies have only intensified. These have had direct, dramatic, and fast-evolving impacts upon UK governmental policy, as well as debates about the public value of research. However, the bulk of the attention in this context thus far has been given to journal articles and academic publishing companies like Elsevier which specialize in periodicals. Comparatively little attention has been given to the effects of these open access policies and discourses upon academic books and their publishers, even though the largest university press in the world, Oxford University Press, and the largest higher education textbook publisher, Pearson, are both UK-based. This article, therefore, will explore how, precisely, the open access movement in the UK is affecting academic book publishing, with potentially global consequences. Ultimately, I will contend, the open access movement in the UK risks further concentrating control of academic book publishing within a few powerful institutions, such as well-endowed elite universities and those businesses whose profits rely upon managing, manipulating, and repackaging the information freely available in the digital age.

Author

• Casey Brienza, City University London