Empowering universities and researchers: Two practical toolkits for New University Presses and Open Access Book Publishing

Abstract

The landscape is evolving rapidly for open access books. In 2020 the community began to realise a transition to open access for books by establishing new initiatives, infrastructures and networks in an effort to create sustainable and meaningful change. As part of this work, two open access toolkits were developed -- one by the OAPEN Foundation and one by Jisc -- to offer practical support and guidance to the community. The OAPEN Open Access Books Toolkit aims to help authors better understand OA for books, increase trust in OA book publishing, provide reliable and easy-to-find answers to questions from authors. The Jisc open access toolkit aims to support New University Presses and library-led publishing. The toolkit includes advice and guidance on all aspects of the publications workflow The two toolkits are free-to-access and include articles, each written by an international group of experts. They have been developed in parallel in order to complement each other and to give relevant information and consistent information to their communities. These two toolkits offer individuals and organisations with practical guides, tools, expert information and answers to many questions - enabling their communities to thrive. This session will focus on the lessons we have learned since the launch of the toolkits in the autumn of 2020, challenges we faced along the way, their impact and future plans