The AEUP Board has written a summary of the workshop, which was aimed at editors and publishers who want to acquire knowledge and gain first hand experience with tools for creating standardized documents in XML. The first day focused on general information on XML-based publishing and about the Métopes project. The following two days offered hands-on experience with Métopes software.
The feedback from the participants of the workshop was very positive. The role of AEUP in this cooperation is best described as an intermediary and an aggregator of ideas.
Anyone who is interested in writing a blog post about XML-based publishing, perhaps you were one of the attandees of this workshop and would like to give your comments and response, please contact us at info@aeup.eu.
June, 5–6 2018: AEUP held the workshop “Keeping up with the standards” in Riga, Latvia, hosted by RTU Press. About 30 participants from a dozen countries joined.
A survey on standards in quality control and reviewing, production, dissemination and distribution.
Save the dates June, 12–14 2019, for the 2nd AEUP 2019 conference in Brno, hosted by Masaryk University Press. More information about the conference will appear on the website in January.
The AEUP Board is looking forward to 2019, a new year filled with AEUP activities and events. We want all of you to take part in discussions, activities and tell us what you think is important for us to work with.
All of us in the AEUP Board would like to thank all members for everything we have accomplished together in 2018.
This week is the international University Press Week 2018. Why celebrate this? It is an occasion to highlight the work we do at University Presses and give credit to all involved.
This years’s theme is focusing on UPs ability to find authors and publish their work, might otherwise would not be published #TurnItUP. The theme was chosen by the Association of University Presses (AUPresses).
Several of our AEUP members presses have and are taking part in this.
This year’s annual meeting will be held at the Frankfurt Book Fair, Thursday, 11 October 2018, 13:00–15:00.
The meeting will take place in hall 3 East/Ost in the room EXTRAKT.
From 13:00 to 14:00: Only for AEUP members (AEUP annual reports on economic status, Riga workshop, survey, strategies etc.)
From 14:00 to 15:00: The meeting will be open to all interested parties.
AEUP 2019 conference in Brno, hosted by Masaryk University Press on 12–14 June 2019
XML-workshop in Göttingen, organised by AEUP, Métopes and HIRMEOS on 11–13 December 2018 Please fill in our small survey before the book fair, about what specific XML-topics/needs should be raised at the workshop, which we would like to discuss with you at this second part of the meeting.
Please let us know if you have any questions or something you would like to discuss at the annual meeting: info@aeup.eu
Drinks reception after the meeting
After the meeting we will have an informal drinks reception at Hall 4.2, stands E68/E71/E73/E74/F75/E77.
About 30 participants from a dozen countries (Armenia, Belgium, Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Germany, Great Britain, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden) joined the international AEUP workshop on standards from May 4th-6th, 2018 in Riga (Latvia). The workshop was hosted by AEUP member RTU Press / Riga Technical University . We are very grateful to them for creating a prolific framework and making us feel very welcome. Among the participants were university presses as well as institutional publishers and experts from Numédif-Métopes, the PKP Knowledge Project and Ubiquity Press. Two new members were welcomed that turned out to be the presses with the longest and shortest tradition within the association – Vilnius University Press, tracing back its history till 1575, and the recently founded University of Groningen Press.
Participants agreed that the workshop was an important step towards unlocking the potential that lies within AEUP, and that the event was a highly productive one several aspects.
About the workshop
The workshop started with AEUP member presentations and some basic information about the AEUP organisation itself in consideration of the workshop’s main topics. First survey results concerning reviewing and quality control, production and dissemination sent in advance of the event provided basics of publishing and provided other important topics and stimulation for the following discussions.
AEUP survey shows that AEUP member presses want workshops and webinars by AEUP. Let’s do it together! #AEUP18pic.twitter.com/KkXcdyUFY4
The event offered four different sessions with input by experts on the very different topics, followed by group break-out and discussions. The sessions dealt with standards in quality control and reviewing including input from Abigail Murdy from Ubiquity Press, standards in production including input from Dominique Roux and Edith Cannet from Numédif-Métopes, standards in publishing with PKP’s Bozana Bokan and standards in dissemination including input from board members.
Dominique Roux explaining Numédif-Métopes project – turning editorial content into publishing media #AEUP18pic.twitter.com/V9pzuAWIHF
Knowledge exchange and networking was encouraged by group work after each session, bringing together publishers with different backgrounds and expectations which led to greater benefits for everyone due to new insights and new perspectives. The group feedback led to inspiring findings for all teh participants.
Ad hoc workshop with Dominique Roux and Edith Cannet (Numédif-Métopes) and Bozana Bokan (PKP) (photo: Ivo Volt, Tartu)
The awakening of new interests can be best illustrated by the fact that several participants, as well as the experts from Numédif-Métopes and PKP, promptly got together after the event for an ad hoc workshop in order to intensify exchange on Métopes’ integrated xml-based workflow.
Direct outcome for 2018: a workshop on integrated xml publishing
Due to the deep interest in this topic and as a result of the survey in preparation of this event (results will be published soon), there will be a three day xml workshop in Göttingen in December 2018 for AEUP members. Organised by AEUP, Métopes and HIRMEOS and mentored by AEUP patron member OPERAS, it will present productive ways of enabling a sustainable “high integration of monographs” in European open science knowledge networks (HIRMEOS).
Big event in 2019: 2nd AEUP Conference
The workshop in Riga closed with a great outlook: In June 2019, the 2nd AEUP Conference will take place in Brno (Czech Republic). It will be hosted by AEUP Member Masaryk University Press.
We are really looking forward to meeting you on this great occasion. Let’s come together and network!
By Leon saudanha (Own work) [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons
The survey covers three important phases of publishing:
quality control and reviewing
production (turning content into products)
dissemination and distribution.
We would be very grateful if you could spend 5-10 minutes to do the survey. The results of the survey will be published later (Autumn 2018 at the latest) on the AEUP website.
So please answer the survey; by doing so you will contribute to shape AEUP’s work according to your needs and burning topics.
#AEUP18 workshop “Keeping up with the Standards”
At the AEUP member meeting at Frankfurt book fair 2017 and at the first #AEUP17 Conference in Stockholm, we discussed that many of us try to keep up with standards in publishing. Some of us are successful, some of us are struggling. Therefore we hope that this survey will give us a better overview of what we need to discuss further.
We made this survey specifically as a preparation for our #AEUP18 workshop “Keeping up with the Standards”, held in Riga on 5-6 June 2018. We hope you can join us in Latvia to exchange experiences with experts and colleagues. If you have not registered already, do not forget to book your place.
European university presses play an important role in scholarly communication. Therefore AEUP, as a core group of interest, pushes forward and declares seven statements on European University Presses.
The statements have been discussed earlier at the 2017 AEUP year’s members meeting. They originate from the (7) recommendations that the board addressed as an outcome of the AEUP Conference in Stockholm May 16-17.
The Board of AEUP hopes that our member presses, and other university presses, will be inspired to write their own statements and have a discussion.
Perhaps your press would like to write a blog post discussing this from your point of view? Please get in contact with the AEUP Board: info@aeup.eu.
The first conference University Press Redux Conference was held in 2016, organised by Liverpool University Press (LUP) and Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers (ALPSP). Every two year a new University Press Redux Conference takes place, so the 2018 University Press Redux Conference was the second conference with support from ALPSP and this time hosted by UCL Press.
I will refer to and comment on some of the topics discussed at the conference in this AEUP blog post.
What do we do at university presses and what do we have in common?
That was a question raised at the conference, pointing out that we need to be more transparent. I couldn’t agree more, that is something we all need to be better at.
What do university presses have in common? European university presses as well as American university presses have widely varying organisational and cultural relationships with their host institutions. That’s what I learnt from Lisa Bayer’s (Director of UGA Press) keynote speech ‘Let’s Stay Together: A Taxonomy of Relationships between American university presses and their Host Institutions’ at the conference.
Lisa Bayer addressed the importance for UGA Press to cultivate a close relationship to the host university, so that the press can grow stronger and share the goals of common good for the community. This is something many university presses surely can agree with and have different experiences of, which could be an interesting topic to discuss among us.
Relationships are about communication and this is what Simon Bell (Head of Author Engagement Emerald group / Emerald Publishing) highlighted in his speech, “It’s good to talk”. Simon Bell pointed out that we need to understand the researchers’ world, which is a “competitive and tough cycle from funding to research to the sharing and articulation of that work, to the impact of that in the wider community”.
Another inspiring talk by keynote speaker Amy Brand (MIT Press) was that university presses need to embrace change, when we are going towards being more technology-centric, trying to be as “open” as possible, and still being print publishers, and strive to the creation and dissemination of knowledge.
Amy Brand also mentioned how increasing transparency around peer review based on creative commons-licenses.
Regarding peer review, Brian Haley (Senior Editor University of Massachusetts Press) had a provoking heading to his speech: ‘Is Peer Review Working at University Presses?’ All European Association of University Presses (AEUP) member presses apply “peer-review procedures”. Most of the time, the peer review process works fine at university presses, but it is a tricky process and all of us involved can always strive to become better.
A good recommendation from Brian Haley was to follow the Association of University Presses’ Handbook Best Practices for Peer Review. That is something AEUP can strongly recommend as well. There are always challenges with the peer review process which we need to discuss about and good guidelines can really help.
Publishing Open Access Monographs – how do we do what we do best?
This conference was mainly focused on books and one topic at a plenary was on Open Access Monographs.
Frank Smith from JSTOR pointed out that the demand for Open Access content is high, but there is no clear definition of an Open Access book and that there is still low awareness of Open Access books among faculty, students and even many librarians, and that funding for Open Access remains uncertain.
Funding, regarding the Open Access Monograph, was something Peter Berkery (Executive Director, Assocation of University Presses) addressed in his speech Toward an Open Monograph Ecosystem. This is something that many European university presses struggle with, especially in the Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS).
An interesting speech was made by Allison Belan (Associate Director for Digital Strategy and Systems, Duke University Press). She talked about why Duke one topic was partnered with a commercial provider to create and host the new platform for humanities and social science publications. Alison Belan highlighted that university presses should keep doing “what we do best”, which is to focus on editorial processes and not have to deal with developing platforms.
This is something that will be discussed at the #AEUP18 workshop in Riga June 5-6. We know that it looks very different at European university presses, depending on business models, capacity, the relationship to the presses university hosts, etc.
The power of social media and a beautiful book
A panel run by Charles Watkinson focused on the relationship between the publisher and the authors. The authors Ilan Kelman,@IlanKelman, Laura Varnam,@lauravarnam, and Jane Winters @jwinters, talked about their experiences.
To sum up, this was about communication, how publishers can help their authors on all levels, in the editorial process, proof reading and how to make a beautiful book for them:
“If you are going to make a print copy make it beautiful” @jfwinters#redux18
Authors and publishers also have a joint agenda for the dissemination of the work. A beautiful cover could help in marketing, i.e. used in social media. Social media as a marketing channel for both authors and publishers today could be huge, but publishers do not always have that expertise.
The importance, or let us say “power”, of social media was something many speakers discussed during the conference – none mentioned, none forgotten – and it was widely twittered about.
Commissioning challenges and cultural change in academic publishing
All university presses need to work with commissioning, in some way or another, whether it is to have new or “the best” authors (researchers), receive more book proposals, journals, etc. Katharine Reeve (Bath Spa University) talked about how commissioning editors can add value for authors, readers and the publishers. What they often meet is criticism from academics for being gatekeepers.
As I see it, we all need to have a dialogue with our authors, the researchers, pointing out a win-win-situation for both the press and the author’s work, whether we have commissioning editors or not.
The most popular and refreshing talk was made by Sarah Kember (Director, Goldsmiths Press / Professor of New Technologies of Communication). She was provocative in a good way, calling for a cultural change in academic publishing.
Sarah Kember’s main point was that open access has become about how to serve commercialism in the business models we now see, whereas it should serve for the better good. Branding, through identity and storytelling, should be for the good of society, not to gain more profit for commercial university presses.
“Who Needs Academic Publishers?”
The final keynote speaker was by Richard Charkin on ‘Who Needs Academic Publishers?’ He stated that “publishing is not about profitability, it is about your assets – your authors”. Richard Charkin also said that what we should do is “to put more money into editorial, cut technology and develop real innovation around research content.”
I think we can all agree upon that we should focus on content and never forget to ask ourselves: “Why and for whom do we do this for?” The answer for all university presses in my point of view – inspired by Sarah Kember – is for the public good and a better society – that’s what it’s all about.
The University Press Redux Conference has come to an end. It’s been two intensive and very interesting days. We hope to see some of you at the #AEUP18 workshop in Riga June 5-6. Thanks to @alpsp and the host @UCLpress#redux18
The Association of European University Presses aims to enhance the visibility of member presses, facilitate communication between them, share knowledge about and support for scholarly publishing.
