INTERVIEW ‘‘
Rob Mackinlay is a journalist for Information Professional.
People do ask why we as librarians have opted to move into publishing, taking on a whole new professional skill set. We have found that there is a lot of cross-over in the wide and varied skills that information professionals are using in roles across libraries. – Gillian Daly
Pressed into action
A healthy by-product of a fractured academic publishing system is the growing number of institution-led open access publishers. One of them, Scottish Universities Press (SUP), has recently announced a move into textbooks. Gillian Daly, SUP Press manager, explains SUP’s plans and the ambitions of the sector.
OVER the past decade many universities and libraries across the UK have set up their own publishing houses. The growth of sector-led open access publishing can be seen in mem- bership of the Open Institutional Publishing Association (OIPA –
https://oipauk.org) which was founded in 2023 and now has 26 mem- ber organisations – some of which represent multiple institutions themselves. Scottish Universities Press (
www.sup.ac.uk/) was one of the founding members of OIPA and is itself supported by a consortium of 20 Scottish Confeder- ation of University and Research Libraries (SCURL) member institutions.
SUP published its first book in October 2024, and two other books followed in the spring of 2025. The books are free to download from the SUP website and print copies are offered at an affordable price point, making the research more accessible to wider audiences.
These initial SUP releases are performing well, with strong downloads and print sales demonstrat- ing the benefits of open access in extending the reach of research.
Moving forward, SUP has already developed a content pipeline of books stretching out to 2029 and has plans to move into journal publishing.
Motivation
While there are ‘carrots’ to be had as a result of setting up in-house, open access publishing, the original motive was more ‘stick’. Gillian, SUP Press
26 INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL DIGITAL
Manager and SCURL Executive officer, said SUP was created in response to challenges in open access publishing: “As librarians, we were concerned that the potential benefits of open access publishing, both in terms of accessibility and affordability, were being lost in the implementation through commer- cial delivery models.”
She added that: “Understanding the true cost of publishing was a key driver in establishing SUP. The lack of transparency in the traditional publishing model and above inflation price increases are seri- ous concerns for libraries.”
However, alongside this ambition “to deliver a clear and cost-effective route to publishing open access” there were other motives within the sector too: “We were also focussed on the roll-out of funder policies in relation to open access, particularly the UKRI mandate for all monographs to be published open access from January 2024. Our timelines were aligned to this development and mindful that the Research Excellence Framework was eventually like- ly to move in this direction and make open access a requirement too. Now planned from 2029.” But transparency is key: “Through SUP, we have
Rewired 2025
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