UCL joins OLH LPS model

We are extremely pleased to announce that University College London (UCL) has joined the Open Library of Humanities’ Library Partnership Subsidy system. UCL is one of the world’s leading universities and the top-rated university in the UK for “research strength” in the 2014 Research Excellence Framework. UCL is also home to the UK’s first purely open-access university press, which launched earlier in 2015.

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 and an academic at Birkbeck College, welcomed UCL: “I am delighted that our fellow University of London institution, UCL, has joined the OLH model. UCL has been a pioneer in the open-access space with its press but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t room for multiple models. It is extremely important that we find the best ways to achieve open access in the humanities disciplines through a variety of routes. With the help of institutions like UCL, we will work towards this in the journal landscape.”

Paul Ayris, Director of Library Services, added: “UCL is delighted to support the Open Library of Humanities’ Library Partnership Subsidy system. UCL believes that Open Access is the future for the dissemination of scholarly outputs”.

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.