So this week has been an especially busy one for me as I have attended two talks promoted by the university as well as attending the university. Firstly there was a talk on Monday on publishing in South Africa and the research possibilities available in the field. Then on Thursday I attended a talk on open access put on by the Oxford Publishing Society (details here).
So the South African publishing talk was organised by the publishing department at Brookes as part of their growing links with Pretoria University. The two speakers were Prof Archie Dick, who specialises in research into the reading habits of slaves, freed slaves and the working classes in South Africa from the 18th century onwards, and Elizabeth le Roux who focuses on university presses in South Africa and how they were affected by apartheid.
Both of these research areas were really interesting to learn about, especially from people who are so passionately involved in the field, but I couldn't help but
So the South African publishing talk was organised by the publishing department at Brookes as part of their growing links with Pretoria University. The two speakers were Prof Archie Dick, who specialises in research into the reading habits of slaves, freed slaves and the working classes in South Africa from the 18th century onwards, and Elizabeth le Roux who focuses on university presses in South Africa and how they were affected by apartheid.
Both of these research areas were really interesting to learn about, especially from people who are so passionately involved in the field, but I couldn't help but
feel that they weren't really relevant to my studies. What I took away from them was a realisation of the broad range of topics I can go into for my dissertation/major project and it got me a bit excited that my research can cover any time period and can be current and political as well. But alas, I doubt I will focus on South Africa despite the excuse it would give me for a "research trip".
The second talk of the week I found a lot more relevant to my course and my interests. This was organised by OPuS as part of International Open Access Week, which I did not know was a thing. The three speakers were Deborah Kahn from BioMed Central, David Ross from Sage and Brian Hole CEO of Ubiquity Press. Each gave a little insight into what is actually involved in open access publishing and how their companies/publications used it.
It was really interesting to learn that open access journals have really been around since 2000 as with all the recent press coverage they seem like a much more modern phenomenon. I was also astounded at the article processing charges being charged by some of the larger STM publications (up to £5000!) but could understand why some kind of charge was necessary to cover the production costs.
My favourite speaker was Brian Hole because I was really inspired by what had driven him to set up Ubiquity Press which is entirely open access. Having worked in traditional journals publishing, he returned to his studies and experienced the user side of journals. Seeing the troubles they had to face and spurred on by the boycott of Elsevir (nicknamed the Academic Spring by the press) and the less addressed distribution and access issues in third world and developing countries he and his colleague set up UP. Just a nice story with a happy ending as UP continue to expand and grow in strength.
So in the world of books and data, as well as journals, open access is becoming a more and more viable option and as new legislation comes in as organisations demand OA publishing as standard it will be interesting to see how OA expands and whether it is sustainable and, more importantly, if traditional publishers can/will embrace it.
Definitely something I will continue to look into, although I might give South Africa a miss.
The second talk of the week I found a lot more relevant to my course and my interests. This was organised by OPuS as part of International Open Access Week, which I did not know was a thing. The three speakers were Deborah Kahn from BioMed Central, David Ross from Sage and Brian Hole CEO of Ubiquity Press. Each gave a little insight into what is actually involved in open access publishing and how their companies/publications used it.
It was really interesting to learn that open access journals have really been around since 2000 as with all the recent press coverage they seem like a much more modern phenomenon. I was also astounded at the article processing charges being charged by some of the larger STM publications (up to £5000!) but could understand why some kind of charge was necessary to cover the production costs.
My favourite speaker was Brian Hole because I was really inspired by what had driven him to set up Ubiquity Press which is entirely open access. Having worked in traditional journals publishing, he returned to his studies and experienced the user side of journals. Seeing the troubles they had to face and spurred on by the boycott of Elsevir (nicknamed the Academic Spring by the press) and the less addressed distribution and access issues in third world and developing countries he and his colleague set up UP. Just a nice story with a happy ending as UP continue to expand and grow in strength.
So in the world of books and data, as well as journals, open access is becoming a more and more viable option and as new legislation comes in as organisations demand OA publishing as standard it will be interesting to see how OA expands and whether it is sustainable and, more importantly, if traditional publishers can/will embrace it.
Definitely something I will continue to look into, although I might give South Africa a miss.
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