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OpenEdition Books Select programme

Copyright: KU

OpenEdition and Knowledge Unlatched sign a partnership to develop Open Access scientific publishing in French

As part of its open science development policy, OpenEdition is pleased to announce that it has signed a partnership with Knowledge Unlatched, an internationally reaching initiative to promote Open Access, based on a rationale of cooperation between libraries and publishers.

On 2 May 2018 OpenEdition and Knowledge Unlatched presented OpenEdition Books Select, the first crowdfunding programme around a bundle of titles from leading French-language publishers in the humanities and social sciences. The selection includes 30 books, 10 of which will be published between late 2018 and early 2019. The programme has been designed in partnership with the French library consortium Couperin.

The funding campaign for the OpenEdition Books Select 2018 programme has been launched on the Knowledge Unlatched platform and will close in December 2018. Libraries across the world will be able to sign up to help reach the unlatching amount, enabling the 30 titles, selected by an international committee of librarians, to be published in Open Access.

Through this joint venture, OpenEdition and Knowledge Unlatched are mobilizing an international network of publishers and libraries in order to enable readers from around the world to access multidisciplinary French content of the highest quality. The OpenEdition Books Select programme provides an opportunity to try out an innovative and transparent Open Access model while at the same time consolidating the place of French-language scientific publishing in the international academic context.

The feedback has been positive and swift: the first promise of support came only a few days after the programme was launched, from Harvard University in the United States. Several French and international institutions have also showed interest in supporting the initiative.

Marin Dacos, the director of OpenEdition, said: “Everyone is in favour of Open Access to research titles. However, there are still questions around the economic model. With OpenEdition Books Select, a virtuous inter-actor and international alliance is being established, which makes it possible to both ensure the quality of the publications and find a means to finance books, in the interests of everybody.”

Max Mosterd, the operations director of Knowledge Unlatched, added: “Until now we have focused on books in English. We are very pleased to be able to showcase the diversity of scientific languages in the humanities and social sciences. We hope to be able to expand into other languages in the near future.”

To find out more: http://knowledgeunlatched.org/openedition/

 


OpenEdition suggests that you cite this post as follows:
OpenEdition team (June 11, 2018). OpenEdition Books Select programme. Open Electronic Publishing. Retrieved April 22, 2025 from https://doi.org/10.58079/si8y


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