In Paris, on July 26, security personnel gather before the 2024 Olympics opening ceremony. One of the seven collections newly opened by Taylor & Francis in its new issue-driven ‘Pledge To Open’ program is ‘Global Security.’ Image – Getty: Livinus
By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
Migration and Asylum, Global Security, Social Movements
The Taylor & Francis issue-driven open-access program called Pledge To Open has been renewed for a second year of publication, following its pilot, covered here at Publishing Perspectives in August. That’s good news for those who like to see academic publishing’s efforts geared toward world events and socially influential scholarship: like a breath of fresh air in the lab, this program is a reminder that good scholarship can live close to our lives, not just in halls of ivy.
“Following the success of the pilot phase,” the company says, “organizations are invited to support seven new book collections on key contemporary themes, including children’s health, AI, and migration.”
Those contemporary themes and more like them are what makes this project a standout among so many open-access activities going on in academic and scholarly publishing.
The seven collections in that first round involved making books free to read and free to publish for the author in these topics:
- Green Renewable Energy
- Climate Change
- Pandemic
- Women’s Health and Rights
- Wellbeing and Mental Health
- Race and Racism
- Populism and Extremism
With the “Summit of the Future” coming later this month at the United Nations’ General Assembly—and a leading focus during the summit on disinformation—this book, from the first Pledge To Open collections, is one to consider: State-Sponsored Disinformation Around the Globe: How Politicians Deceive Their Citizens, edited by Martin Echeverria, Sara Garcia Santamaria, and Daniel C. Hallin.
On the book’s page, a reader is able to either download and read the book free of charge, read it online, also free, or buy a print edition of the book.
Emily Farrell
Emily Farrell, Emily Farrell, global commercial director for open research at Taylor & Francis, says, “We are very grateful to everyone who gave us useful feedback on the pilot and we’re looking forward to engaging with our partners about how the new enhancements make Pledge to Open an even better fit for their open research priorities.”
In this second year of the project, and the first post-pilot year of activity, the collections (each to carry 10 titles) are:
- Artificial Intelligence
- Biotechnological Solutions
- Children’s Health and Welfare
- Global Security
- Migration and Asylum
- Social Movements and Activism
- Sustainability in Practice
‘Engaging With Today’s Most Crucial Challenges’
Because most of our Publishing Perspectives professional readership is in trade (commercial) publishing rather than the academy, we’ll explain that in using the term diamond to refer to this new pilot program, Taylor & Francis is referencing what’s called a “diamond open-access” model in scholarly publication.
It refers to a publication program that doesn’t charge fees either to its authors or readers. While this program is based on books, a “diamond open-access” model in journals would indicate community-driven, academic-led publishing initiatives.
In its first outing as a pilot, the Pledge To Open program was supported by 24 institutions, set in many parts of the world, including research-focused universities and smaller institutions.
The company reports that this second round is an enhanced model informed by conversations with a range of partners, who helped identify elements which would make Pledge To Open suitable for a greater number of organizations.
Additional features now include the ability of pledging libraries to choose perpetual access to 50 backlist titles per collection from a selection of 1,000 books related to the collection themes. Pledging prices have also been adjusted and there are now preferential rates for organizations that support every collection.
Nicola Parkin
Nicola Parkin, director of books and editorial services at Taylor & Francis, is quoted in the company’s media messaging, saying, “The breadth of interdisciplinary research published under our Routledge and CRC Press imprints gives us the perfect opportunity to curate book collections which will benefit from the Pledge to Open approach and support scholarship that’s engaging with today’s most crucial challenges.”
And with the call now open, then, for organizations interested in getting more details about participating in Pledge to Open should contact pledgetoopen@tandf.co.uk
More from Publishing Perspectives on academic and scholarly publishing is here, more on international journal publishing is here, more on Taylor & Francis is here, and more on the United Kingdom’s international book and publishing industry, both academic and trade, is here.