US university presses want to expand open-access discussion

The Association of American University Presses (AAUP) has called for the open-access debate to be opened up to different types of scholarly literature and different access models.

Until quite recently, points out a new statement from the AAUP, the open-access debate has centered on STM journal articles and on open access as meaning entirely free-to-user. AAUP believes that the conversation should address the different creation and distribution needs of scholarly literature in all .elds and formats, including monographs. It also wants to consider a variety of models for providing open access, all of which come with both risks and benefits to the entire system of scholarly communications that need to be better understood.

The AAUP statement says that changing the system of scholarly communications requires careful consideration of the costs involved—not just for presses, but for parent universities, scholarly societies and their members, and all other universities and research institutions that bene.t from the distribution of scholarship. However, it adds that university presses and scholarly societies have never been averse to change and that many AAUP members have begun experimenting with varieties of open access that seek to balance the mission of scholarly exchange with its costs.

The Association of American University Presses (AAUP) represents 112 not-for-profit scholarly publishers in the USA and an additional 15 international scholarly publishers.