Opinion: “Monographs on the Move?: a View on ‘Decoupling’ and Other Prospects”

The following opinion piece was published on the Insights: the UKSG Journal website today.
Title
Monographs on the Move?: a View on ‘Decoupling’ and Other Prospects
Author
Andrew Lockett
University of Westminster
Source
Insights, 31, 37
Published on September 26, 2018
DOI: 10.1629/uksg.435
Abstract

In the context of the recent debate about the movement towards a monographs mandate for the UK, this opinion piece considers the logic of ‘decoupling’ that underlies it. It also looks at the real opportunities to improve on the current extraordinarily durable high-price system for publishing long-form research. Thinking around decoupled monograph publishing has positioned academic authors as the individual consumers of diverse publishing services (a wide array of which are fast emerging) in the face of significant scholarly caution. Furthermore, a danger of renewed market dominance by price-makers in an open access environment remains, with the risk of inequitable outcomes that may mirror problems that have arisen in journals. Opportunities may also arise for new local initiatives, especially collective and community-based publishing, with academic libraries likely to be in the middle of a fast-changing and contested environment for publishing monographs.

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Filed under: Academic Libraries, Libraries, News, Open Access, Publishing