The document summarizes a presentation given by Brian Hole, the founder and CEO of Ubiquity Press. Ubiquity Press aims to disrupt academic publishing by providing infrastructure and support to allow academic societies and universities to publish research in a way that can outcompete legacy publishers. It discusses how academic publishing is changing with new open access mandates and how Ubiquity Press offers different levels of support and services to help universities and societies set up their own publishing programs.

1. brian.hole@ubiquitypress.com www.ubiquitypress.com / @ubiquitypress
RLUK meeting, York, 21 March 2014
Brian Hole, Founder and CEO
Disrupting academic publishing

2. brian.hole@ubiquitypress.com www.ubiquitypress.com / @ubiquitypress
To return control of publishing to academic societies and
universities, providing them with the infrastructure and support
to not only match but to outcompete the legacy publishers.
About Ubiquity Press
Background
Mission
 Spun out of University College London in 2012
 Researcher-led
 50+ years publishing experience
(BioMed Central, PLoS, Elsevier, IoP)
 Current staff of 11, office in London
 Comprehensive approach: journals,
books, data, software, wetware…

3. brian.hole@ubiquitypress.com www.ubiquitypress.com / @ubiquitypress
The Social Contract
of Science
• Validation
• Dissemination
• Further development
Scientific Malpractice
• Data
• Results
• Software
• Hardware, wetware…
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Source: http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=2015

4. brian.hole@ubiquitypress.com www.ubiquitypress.com / @ubiquitypress

5. brian.hole@ubiquitypress.com www.ubiquitypress.com / @ubiquitypress
Academic publishing is going to change
 The UK has mandated open access publishing for all state funded research,
EU and US are likely to follow
 Academic societies want open access, but worry
about costs and losing subscription income
 Legacy publishers are unwilling and unable to lower fees for OA, so still
very expensive (average charge £2,000 per article published)
 Many want their own presses to make
publishing more affordable and for prestige
(although it is expensive and difficult to match
the legacy publishers’ systems)
Opportunity
Challenges

6. brian.hole@ubiquitypress.com www.ubiquitypress.com / @ubiquitypress

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8. brian.hole@ubiquitypress.com www.ubiquitypress.com / @ubiquitypress
3 levels of support for universities
1 Memberships
- 10% discount
- pre or post paid
3 University press
support
2 Ad hoc publishing

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Institutional branding

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Institutional branding

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Extended journal functionality

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Extended journal functionality

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Research data publication

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Repositories
Modified from: XKCD

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Providing a solution for presses

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Peer review and cascading content

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Research integrity
Full anti-plagiarism checking
Provision for open research data and software
archiving with all publications
Rigorous peer review
Editorial guidance and training
Provision for open peer review
COPE membership for all editors
Close links with society’s ethics committee

19. brian.hole@ubiquitypress.com www.ubiquitypress.com / @ubiquitypress
For any questions, please contact
brian.hole@ubiquitypress.com
Ubiquity Press website: http://www.ubiquitypress.com
Koh, A. 2012. Open Access Ahoy! An Interview with Ubiquity Press. The Chronicle of
Higher Education. Available: http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/ubiquity/43312
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