Ubiquity Press was founded in 2012 to give universities and researchers control over publishing by providing infrastructure and support to publish open access journals and books. They aim to outcompete legacy publishers by lowering article publication fees from an average of £2,000 to more affordable rates. Ubiquity Press works with over 50 academic societies and university presses to transition their publishing programs to open access using Ubiquity Press' publishing platform and services.

1. Disrupting academic publishing
Returning control to universities
Wolfson College e-Publishing Workshop, 11 June 2014
Brian Hole, Founder and CEO
brian.hole@ubiquitypress.com www.ubiquitypress.com / @ubiquitypress

2. About Ubiquity Press
To return control of publishing to universities and researchers,
providing them with the infrastructure and support to not only
match but to outcompete the legacy publishers.
Background
brian.hole@ubiquitypress.com www.ubiquitypress.com / @ubiquitypress
Mission
 Spun out of University College London in 2012
 Researcher-led
 50+ years publishing experience
(BioMed Central, PLoS, Elsevier, IoP)
 Current staff of 13, office in London
 Comprehensive approach: journals,
books, data, software, wetware…

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

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

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

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

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

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

9. Providing a solution for presses
brian.hole@ubiquitypress.com www.ubiquitypress.com / @ubiquitypress

10. Peer review and cascading content
brian.hole@ubiquitypress.com www.ubiquitypress.com / @ubiquitypress

11. Research integrity
 Full anti-plagiarism checking
 Rigorous peer review
 Editorial guidance and training
 Provision for open peer review
COPE membership for all editors
 Close links with society’s ethics committee
 Provision for open research data and software
archiving with all publications
brian.hole@ubiquitypress.com www.ubiquitypress.com / @ubiquitypress

12. The Ubiquity Partner Network
brian.hole@ubiquitypress.com www.ubiquitypress.com / @ubiquitypress

13. Ubiquity Partner Plugins
brian.hole@ubiquitypress.com www.ubiquitypress.com / @ubiquitypress

14. For any questions, please contact
brian.hole@ubiquitypress.com
More information
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
brian.hole@ubiquitypress.com www.ubiquitypress.com / @ubiquitypress