UCL Press: The UK's 'first fully open access' university press

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to set in context the launch of University College London Press (UCL Press), which describes itself as the UK's first fully open access (OA) university press. The drivers for this launch are bound up with the global movement towards open access and open science-developments in which UCL is acknowledged as a European leader. The first part of the article looks at these movements and relates them to the relaunch in May 2015 of the UCL Press imprint as an OA imprint. This analysis has been undertaken by Dr Paul Ayris, Director of UCL Library Services and Chief Executive of UCL Press. The second half of the article is a personal account by Lara Speicher, Publishing Manager at UCL Press, of the relaunch of the Press. This section looks at staffing structures, business models, technical infrastructures, publishing programmes and content. In the final part of the article, Paul Ayris draws some conclusions from the history of the relaunch of UCL Press and sets these in the context of the global open science discussion.