Sustainable Futures for OA Books: The Open Book Collective: Community-led Open Publication Infrastructures for Monographs (COPIM) Project

• Published in: The journal of electronic publishing Vol. 26; no. 1; p. 1
• Main Authors: Fathallah, Judith, Snyder, Livy Onalee
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Ann Arbor University of Michigan, Scholarly Publishing Office 01.01.2023
• Subjects: Open access publishing
• ISSN: 1080-2711
• DOI: 10.3998/jep.3372

This article explains the need for and describes the work of the Open Book Collective (OBC). The OBC is a major output of the Community-led Open Publication Infrastructures for Monographs (COPIM) project. The collective will bring together diverse small-to-medium open access (OA) publishers, open publishing service providers, libraries, and other research institutions to create a new, mutually supportive, and interdependent community space and platform designed to sustain the future of OA book publishing. The OBC is founded upon equitable, community-led governance and helping publishers move beyond book processing charges (BPCs). Central to the functioning of the OBC is an online platform that will make it easier for libraries and other potential subscribers to compare, evaluate, and subscribe to different OA publishers and open service providers via membership packages. The OBC supports small-to-medium OA publishers by way of the COPIM philosophy of "scaling small." This allows publishers and other members to operate sustainably and collaboratively while retaining their diverse and singular editorial missions, rather than operating from philosophies centered on economic growth, competition, and monopoly.