Queen Mary University of London joins OLH LPS model
Posted by Martin Paul Eve on 9 October 2015
We are extremely pleased to announce that Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) has joined the Open Library of Humanities’ Library Partnership Subsidy system. QMUL is one of the UK’s leading research-focused higher education institutions. With around 17,840 students, 4,000 staff and an annual turnover of £300m, it is one of the biggest University of London colleges.
The Open Library of Humanities is an academic-led, gold open-access publisher with no author-facing charges. With funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the platform covers its costs by payments from an international library consortium, rather than any kind of author fee.
Dr. Martin Paul Eve, a founder and academic project director of the OLH, welcomed QMUL: “As an alumnus of QMUL’s English department, I am personally delighted that QMUL has joined the OLH model. Making the very best of humanities scholarship available to all is a mission shared by universities. Of course, it is not easy to reconfigure the economics of scholarly communications. With the help of institutions like QMUL, however, the OLH will play a part in this transition.”
Pat Simons, Assistant Director (Academic Services and Resources), added: “QMUL strongly supports the principles of open access to research outputs and we are delighted to participate in this initiative that will facilitate the open exchange of scholarship within the Humanities. We particularly welcome the OLH’s business model that recognises the continuing importance of libraries in curating and disseminating scholarship.”
Journals wishing to join the platform should submit an initial enquiry to martin.eve@openlibhums.org. After the September launch of the OLH, applications will be be subject to the platform's joining procedure. Libraries outside the US and UK interested in joining the OLH Library Partnership Subsidy model should contact Dr. Martin Paul Eve: martin.eve@openlibhums.org. UK-based libraries can join through Jisc Collections at http://www.jisc-collections.ac.uk/Catalogue/Overview/Index/2120. US-based libraries can join through LYRASIS at https://lyrasis.openlibhums.org.