Open access monographs

[David Ottina <davido AT openhumanitiespress.org>]

Hi,

Thanks, Paul, for this summary of our recent background discussion which
gives us some very good launching points.

I just wanted to respond to one comment of John's that came in before we
set up the mailing list (which I'm including below so new list members
can read it):

John Willinsky wrote:

< While this open source system approach may not be the direction in  
which OHP wants to move on this, just as such an approach may not be  
fit with this mailing list's concerns with the monograph, I would just  
add a further word on what we have been thinking about in terms of a  
software-development process for a monograph system.

In looking to build an open source system for incubating, managing and  
publishing monographs that can be widely used by different groups  
(within various disciplinary interests), we hope to see the design and  
programming of such a system take place on a distributed development  
basis, in true open source fashion, with dispersed groups taking on  
discrete components and the Public Knowledge Project providing  
coordinating, integrating, and management support, as part of its  
ongoing role in maintaining Open Journal and Open Conference Systems.  
Which is to say, that there's an open invitation as we move ahead at  
this early stage, for groups or individuals to consider whether they  
< would like to be included in this distributed development process.

I think your software project does fit in with the concerns of the
mailing list, as OHP needs to discuss operational issues as well as
explore what monograph publishing in an networked world means. I might
add that we are strongly committed to open source. Personally, I see OA
and open source software development as complimentary layers in a
broader movement.

Unfortunately, at this stage, we have no programming resources to offer.
But I think we may be immediately useful as a cluster of humanities
users who can coordinate ourselves to develop use cases, perform task
analyses, organize usability testing -- in short, provide whatever
inputs developers would find helpful. 

That said, when OHP gets to the point of applying for funding for
monograph projects (and given the interest I hope that's soon), I think
we will want to write development costs into the project plan in support
of OMP so as to help in creating an infrastructure and platform for
monograph publishing.

Best,
David

On Wed, 2008-06-18 at 01:15 +1000, Paul Ashton wrote:
> Hello Everyone,
> 
> To kick off the discussion regarding OHP monographs (and to some extent OA
> monographs in the humanities more generally) I thought that I might just
> give a quick background to some of the discussion that has taken place so
> far, and some of the questions that have been raised. Having said this, what
> has taken place, and the questions raised, should not be seen as a frame or
> limit, but as a beginning to a wider discussion.
> 
> Anyway...
> 
> The initial plan was to start thinking about monographs down the track
> (after the journal strategy was well established etc.), however, the time to
> discuss books seemed to spontaneously arise. In fact, a few people outside
> of OHP publicly made the assumption that OHP was in fact moving into
> monographs which seemed to add weight to an emerging discussion.
> Furthermore, I guess the book form is to some extent more 'important' to the
> humanities community than it is for those in the empirical sciences, and
> thus it seems almost 'natural' that ohp should be setting the pace here.
> 
> The discussion has revolved around 'if' and how (in terms of editorial
> process) we should move forward, and on what model (organizationally) we
> should adopt to ensure sustainability. I say 'if' because we need to work
> out if our goal is to become a player in OA humanities monograph production
> or whether our goal is to help create OA book publishing as a more widely
> deployed form, which may or may not entail ourselves producing any books. I
> will thus put forward some of the ideas raise in two parts, a) editorial b)
> organizational.
> 
> 
> Editorial.
> - How could/should the editorial process of OHP books be organized? We seem
> to potentially have two great editorial resources  at our disposal (the OHP
> editorial board and the journal's editorial structure). For example, would a
> good way to kick things off be to invite someone established thinkers in
> their field from the ohp EAB to start a series?
> - assuming we go ahead and decide to publish books, should we start off
> small with say one series and build from there, or should we develop a broad
> plan and start with a more coordinated push?
> - how should we structure our editorial process - including the sourcing of
> new material?
> -should ohp be a publisher in its own right or draw in and 'certify' other
> OA book publishers in the same way journals are certified?
> - is there scope to join up with other projects? -- for example J. Willinsky
> raised the Avant Garde Lab.
> ...
> 
> Organizational
> - The POD (print on demand)/OA model is widely recognized as one possible
> structure that can bring 'some', albeit limited, funds back into the
> project.
> - could a subscription model where libraries subscribe to OHP books work as
> a source of funding? Or could we rely on some libraries 'sponsoring' OHP
> books through some kind of funding scheme (basically donations). There was
> some discussion about how 'controlled' the library distribution market is
> and how it would be quite difficult to break into it even if we did produce
> titles that could be considered essential reading and that a more direct
> transfer of funds may be needed.
> - how can we even get funding--any at all?
> - how can we structure the process of the production of the books within
> what would be considered 'normal' academic activities? That is, just as
> commercial publishers effectively outsource large parts of the production
> process to unpaid scholarly labour, can or should OHP do the same? That is
> can we develop a model that really keeps the costs right down?
> - How can we deploy technologies (I guess all of the discussion here has
> been on OMP, but there may be others technologies worth bringing into the
> discussion: blogs, forums ...) to aid the process
> - how can we use the organizational structures that are already part of OHP
> and its affiliates (i.e. the journals) to assist.
> ...
> 
> 
> This discussion is a bit all over the place, but hopefully it will spark
> some ideas or initiate a more focused line of thought.
> 
> Best
> 
> Paul 
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> OHP mailing list
> OHP AT lists.ibiblio.org
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/ohp