News
Cambridge to trial crowdfunding open access book
Cambridge University Press (CUP) is launching a crowdfunding campaign to publish a book in the open access model. CUP has teamed up with the book site Unbound to determine if crowdfunding can support making selected titles open access (OA) – free to read online by anyone with an internet connection, anywhere in the world. The move is a two-time first. For CUP it’s the first time it has tried to crowdfund a book, while for Unbound it is the first time it has worked with an academic publisher. The book – The Case for Scottish Independence by Ben Jackson – will be published next year. The three-month crowdfunding campaign will cover the costs of making it available online and OA. If the campaign’s target is reached,
everyone who pledged will get a copy of the book and have their names listed in the back. A range of other rewards will be
on offer to backers, including a chance to have dinner with the author. Ben Denne, director of publishing
for CUP’s academic books, said: ‘As a university press we welcome and support the goals of open research – to increase collaboration and to improve the accessibility, efficiency and impact of research. The challenge is to do so in a way that allows us to continue investing in high-quality content. ‘The open access movement started
with academic research journals, and books are still catching up. We are excited by the potential of open access publishing to reach wide audiences, and determined to find sustainable ways to publish more of our books open access. ‘Of course, the nature of the internet means pretty much anyone can now put content online themselves, but you then lose the huge benefits of curated,
Research project to focus on impact outside academia
Kudos, the service for accelerating research impact through strategic communications management, is launching a research project, ‘Bridging the Divide’. This study is aimed at
exploring: the growing requirement for researchers to engage with audiences outside of academia; the motivations and expectations of funders relating to this ‘broader impact’, and the budget being made available; and opportunities for publishing in developing service and content offerings to help
bridge the ‘knowledge chasm’ between those that produce and use research. The project builds on the findings of ‘Swimming Upstream’, a previous Kudos- led study sponsored by AIP Publishing, De Gruyter, Karger Publishers, Editage, AIAA, BMJ, Cambridge University Press, The IET, Royal Society of Chemistry and Sage. While that project focused
on potential publisher services most likely to be valued by academic authors ‘upstream’ of the point of publication, it also uncovered
30 Research Information December 2019/January 2020
the scale of collaboration between academic and non- academic audiences, and the need for new content formats, business models, platforms and services. An overwhelming majority (95 per cent) of Upstream’s 9,500-plus respondents indicated that such broader communications are important to their future funding and career. ‘The need to demonstrate impact – meaningful and measurable effects in the real world – has begun to break down the barriers between academics and stakeholders
such as industry, educators, policy makers and other non- academic audiences,’ said Melinda Kenneway, CEO at Kudos. ‘This shift represents one of the largest emerging opportunities in the publishing sector, and publishers have a potentially hugely valuable role to play in bridging this divide.’ Project partners will benefit
from opportunities to suggest content for the research instruments, and access to results data and analysis, including custom findings and recommendations based on specific respondent groups.
@researchinfo |
www.researchinformation.info
high-quality content that comes from publishers’ rigorous approach to content selection, enhancement and production.’ Mathew Clayton, head of publishing at Unbound, said: ‘This feels like a ground- breaking moment – using Unbound’s platform to help increase open access in academic publishing would dramatically shift the way things have previously worked. We are really delighted to be partnering with Cambridge University Press in this bold experiment. The book argues that the roots of
Scottish nationalism lie in the decades after the 1960s and not in the distant past of the Acts of Union or the Scottish Enlightenment. It offers a fresh, original and up to date examination of the politics of Scottish nationalism, written in a readable style for students, researchers, politicians and anyone else interested in modern Scottish identity and politics.
Franzi/
Shutterstock.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32
