The small academic press in the land of giants

Abstract

Mergers and acquisitions, for example the merger of Macmillan Science and Education with Springer Science+Business Media, might suggest that large is the future for academic publishing. It might seem that giant players will dominate the future of scholarly publishing, but, at the same time, this year has seen the launch of UCL Press, the University's in-house publishing arm. Goldsmiths, University of London, has also announced it is preparing to launch Goldsmiths Press, a new university press built on digital-first publishing, especially around unconventional projects traditionally excluded by publishers. Some of the more established university presses also seem to be increasing their scope. For example, Stanford University Press launched a new trade imprint and Manchester University Press has announced it has acquired forward titles from Bloomsbury Publishing. Insights asked two experts if there really is scope for the small academic press in the modern scholarly publishing environment. Frances Pinter has provided the perspective of the small university press. She is realistic about the challenges small academic publishers face, but concludes that there is space and opportunity for them to coexist with the giants. Michael Magoulias is equally realistic about the challenges of small, but sees the university press as a necessary, not to say, vital, alternative to commercial publishing.