The University of Chichester joins OLH LPS Model

We are pleased to announce that the University of Chichester has joined the Open Library of Humanities' Library Partnership Subsidy system. The University of Chichester is a thriving higher education institution, which was recently recognised as a one of the top-30 universities in the UK (Guardian University Guide 2021). The history of its two campuses, in Chichester and Bognor Regis, dates back to 1839 and it gained university status in 2005.  The University is known for its outstanding student experience and its commitment to innovative approaches to widening access to university, including outreach to nearby schools and colleges and alternative routes to higher education, such as degree apprenticeships. The University also holds a Silver TEF Award and is a member of The Cathedrals Group. Ninety percent of its research was rated as internationally-renowned and 15 percent as world-leading in the latest Research Excellent Framework (REF 2014). Its key disciplines are in sport, education, creative and digital technologies, and engineering, with a new School of Nursing and Allied Heath aiming to develop hundreds of new healthcare professionals in post-Covid era.

The Open Library of Humanities is an award-winning, academic-led, gold open-access publisher with no author-facing charges. With initial funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and subsequent support from Arcadia, a charitable fund of Dr Lisbet Rausing and Professor Peter Baldwin, the platform covers its costs by payments from an international library consortium, rather than any kind of author fee. This enables equitable open access in the humanities disciplines, with no financial charges to readers or authors.

"It is great to have the support of the University of Chichester", said Paula Clemente Vega, Marketing Officer for the Open Library of Humanities. "We recently launched our new OLH Jisc Agreement, and most of our UK supporting institutions have been re-joining us on a daily basis since then in support of open access in the humanities. We are also very pleased to welcome new member universities, such as the University of Chichester, as part of this new agreement. It is thanks to this kind of institutional support that we can further our mission of fee-free OA in the humanities. We owe our success to all our supporting universities."

Debbie Bogard, the University’s Research Support and Electronic Resources Librarian, said: "The University is keen to support open research and so we are delighted to collaborate with the Open Library of Humanities. This move will help to make more of our research open on publication, which is great for members of the public who want to know more about the quality of research conducted at Chichester, as well as benefitting the academic community."

If you like the work that the Open Library of Humanities is doing, please consider asking your institution to support us financially. We cannot operate without our library members. More details for libraries can be found at: https://www.openlibhums.org/plugins/supporters/signup/.