University Publishing in a Digital Age

I. Introduction: A. Objectives

This is the final report of an assessment of university-based publishing and the future role of the university in the scholarly publishing system. This paper has four purposes:

First, we hope to make the case that universities should become more actively involved in publishing scholarship. It may not be obvious to many administrators that they should be in this “business” at all – why not stick to the core purposes of producing scholarship and providing education, and leave the details of getting their byproducts into print (or onto servers) to others? Many administrators have made this function a relatively low priority because they have more pressing concerns, do not have a framework for the role their institutions should play in scholarly communication, and associate the publishing enterprise with university presses, which, for a variety of reasons, are not strategically engaged in the core activities of their host institutions. We will argue, however, that universities give up too much by withdrawing from publishing. They give up the opportunity to enhance institutional reputation and prestige. They reduce their ability to influence what gets published – and, therefore, not only what gets read but also who gets hired or promoted. They give up an opportunity to enhance the quality of what is published through the rich dialogue that is enabled by bringing editors into the fabric of relationships among scholars. And, as is often decried by open access advocates, universities sometimes must pay excessively high prices to gain access to published scholarship. (Open access efforts may be a solution to some of these problems, but we will argue that there is no one-size-fits-all solution across disciplines and types of content.) There is a great need, as well as a great opportunity, to revitalize the university’s role and capabilities in publishing.

Our second purpose is to galvanize action and investment to support revitalization of university publishing. The university-based publishing enterprise of the future must look very different from that of the past. This adaptation will require new kinds of leadership from universities and their central administrators. Administrators need to recognize the role of universities in publishing and develop strategies for the successful investment of resources, both financial and human. In some cases, that may mean making major structural and strategic changes to an existing press. In other cases it may mean forming new collaborations between different entities on campus or even across institutions, or disaggregating and recombining publishing related activities across multiple campus entities. It will no doubt require new infusions of capital, but this investment can create economies of scale that could help, in the end, to lower the costs and extend the reach of scholarly publishing. These decisions must be based on careful consideration and must be communicated clearly to those responsible for carrying them out. Several universities have already begun taking steps in this direction, and we will highlight examples of their activities.

Third, we wish to explore some of the challenges and opportunities specific to university presses, as we believe that they can remain a vibrant part of the scholarly system if they are able to adapt quickly to the new electronic environment. The financial challenges of university presses have been well documented elsewhere[3]. We concentrated primarily on exploring how the presses see themselves, how they are seen by others in the university community, and what unique strengths presses have to offer, with an eye towards identifying opportunities for them to translate their skills and assets to the future needs of the academy. We have also sought to understand the factors that have impeded their transition to electronic media, especially in monograph programs, in an effort to identify realistic measures going forward.

Fourth, and finally, we aim to start a conversation and gauge interest in a possible collective investment in a technological platform to support innovation in university-based, mission-driven publishing. We found considerable interest in cross-institutional collaboration, and a feeling that some third party “glue” is needed to make this happen. Our discussions with administrators, publishers, faculty, and librarians revealed real enthusiasm for the concept of a service that could aggregate published university content online, create a dynamic, efficient space for the tools of scholarship developed within universities, and spread the costs of investment among multiple institutions. We would now like to expand this conversation to the wider community, to test and refine the idea, and determine whether it may merit further exploration and possible investment.

The study was sponsored by JSTOR and Ithaka and was led by Laura Brown, former president of Oxford University Press USA, in collaboration with Ithaka’s Strategic Services group. We gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Peter Givler of the American Association of University Presses in distributing the survey to university press directors and encouraging their participation.