Working collectively to open up access to books: Wayfinders #5

Tuesday, 25 March 2025, 4 – 5pm GMT

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Following our deep-dive into Subscribe to Open, Wayfinders #5 is an exploration of collective action models enabling open access for books and monographs without the need for Book Processing Charges (BPCs). 

Whether named as members, supporters, partners, investors or others, collective library action is funding open content across many book publishers. This session gathers publisher perspectives from Europe, UK and USA on how they open, and why they open, as well as what’s at stake if we can’t open books in ways that include all scholars.

Join us for a conversation where ‘mixed model’ enables full open access; where human stories of transformation are evident, where R&D is a part of the open publishing story, and where huge and tiny organisations are finding inclusive ways to deliver open access for books, chapters and monographs. We will discuss:

  • Piloting a pledge to open UN-inspired interdisciplinary collections  – Emily Farrell, Taylor & Francis
  • Funding the mission through ‘ fund to mission – Charles Watkinson, University of Michigan Press

Please visit the links above to read about these four models before the session. Models will not be covered in detail during the live session to allow time for discussion and Q&A.

Join us live for this free webinar, bring your questions along, and contribute to the discussion.

Link to registration page: https://bit.ly/registration-march-25. Please share with all whom you think may be interested.

Do you have an idea for a future OASPA webinar? If there is a topic you would like us to consider, we invite you to send us your ideas via this form.

Please note that views expressed in OASPA webinars are those of the individual speakers and do not represent the view of OASPA.


Panelist Biographies

Lucy Barnes is Senior Editor and Outreach Coordinator at Open Book Publishers, a leading non-profit, scholar-led Open Access book publisher based in Cambridge, UK. She also works on outreach for the Copim Open Book Futures project and is on the board of the ScholarLed collective. She coordinates the Open Access Books Network (oabooksnetwork.org) in collaboration with OAPEN, OPERAS, and SPARC Europe, and she is on the Editorial Advisory Board for the OAPEN Open Access Books Toolkit.
Bluesky: @alittleroad.bsky.social

Dr Frances Pinter is Director of Academic Relations for the Central European University Press and Amsterdam University Press. She was formerly CEO of Manchester University Press. She was the founding Publisher of Bloomsbury Academic and the founder of Knowledge Unlatched, with a particular interest in developing sustainable OA business models. Previously she was Publishing Director at the Open Society Institute where she established EIFL. Before that she ran her own publishing company, Pinter Publishers. She is a visiting research fellow at the London School of Economics.

Emily Farrell is Global Commercial Director for Open Research at Taylor & Francis – Awaiting bio
LinkedIn: @emilyjfarrell
Bluesky: @emilyjfarrell.bsky.social 

Charles Watkinson is Director, University of Michigan Press – Awaiting bio
Bluesky: @charleswatkinson.bsky.social
LinkedIn: @charles-watkinson-7553a257
X: @charleswatkinso

Malavika Legge is OASPA’s Program Manager, leading a range of activities that support OASPA’s mission. With roots in commissioning and editorial development, and extensive STM publishing experience, Malavika has a love for harnessing workflows and technology on the one hand, and galvanising people and communities on the other, to help deliver open access to scholarly content. Malavika dreams of a world where scholarly publishing means open access publishing – by default, for everyone. She is creator of the Wayfinders sessions, and author of OASPA’s series on Equity in Open Access.

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