Presentation given at the RLUK AGM, York, UK, 21 March 2014.

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RLUK meeting, York, 21 March 2014
Brian Hole, Founder and CEO
Disrupting academic publishing

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To return control of publishing to academic societies and
universities, providing them with the infrastructure and support
to not only match but to outcompete the legacy publishers.
About Ubiquity Press
Background
Mission
 Spun out of University College London in 2012
 Researcher-led
 50+ years publishing experience
(BioMed Central, PLoS, Elsevier, IoP)
 Current staff of 11, office in London
 Comprehensive approach: journals,
books, data, software, wetware…

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The Social Contract
of Science
• Validation
• Dissemination
• Further development
Scientific Malpractice
• Data
• Results
• Software
• Hardware, wetware…
#@%$#@
% #@%$#
Source: http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=2015

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Academic publishing is going to change
 The UK has mandated open access publishing for all state funded research,
EU and US are likely to follow
 Academic societies want open access, but worry
about costs and losing subscription income
 Legacy publishers are unwilling and unable to lower fees for OA, so still
very expensive (average charge £2,000 per article published)
 Many want their own presses to make
publishing more affordable and for prestige
(although it is expensive and difficult to match
the legacy publishers’ systems)
Opportunity
Challenges

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3 levels of support for universities
1 Memberships
- 10% discount
- pre or post paid
3 University press
support
2 Ad hoc publishing

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Institutional branding

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Institutional branding

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Extended journal functionality

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Extended journal functionality

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Research data publication

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Repositories
Modified from: XKCD

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Providing a solution for presses

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Peer review and cascading content

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Research integrity
Full anti-plagiarism checking
Provision for open research data and software
archiving with all publications
Rigorous peer review
Editorial guidance and training
Provision for open peer review
COPE membership for all editors
Close links with society’s ethics committee

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For any questions, please contact
brian.hole@ubiquitypress.com
Ubiquity Press website: http://www.ubiquitypress.com
Koh, A. 2012. Open Access Ahoy! An Interview with Ubiquity Press. The Chronicle of
Higher Education. Available: http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/ubiquity/43312
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