As we, here at the University of Buckingham Press, are all too aware, making open access publishing a reality is an ongoing opportunity and challenge. With that in mind it was great to see JISC recently launch a toolkit that will help new university presses to find sustainable ways to publish in open access.
Depending on the maturity and size of the press, this toolkit will help existing operations as well as those planning to launch or investigate whether to establish a new press, to better understand the following key questions:
How to get institutional buy-in, and understand resource and budget requirements in order to justify the start-up of a press
How to attract and support authors.
The toolkit is structured into eleven main sections and is provided with a CC-BY licence so that the content can be shared, re-used and re-purposed. Although the JISC toolkit is initially aimed at UK institutions, it draws upon international best practice and case studies making the content applicable to a global audience. Support for individual researchers who wish to understand more about open access for books is available via the OAPEN Open Access Books Toolkit which was developed at the same time but focuses specifically on issues around open access publishing. The university press toolkit will be reviewed regularly, and the editorial advisory board will commission new work in response to changes in the publishing landscape and user feedback. Readers and users are welcomed to send feedback to: graham.stone@jisc.ac.uk.