University Presses

Neste artigo analisa-se um conjunto de dinâmicas presentes no mercado editorial atual do livro universitário em Portugal. Apesar do atraso português na área da edição universitária, sobretudo por comparação com outros países como o Brasil, têm-se revelado, embora de modo heterogéneo, traços claros de mudança. Um número crescente de editoras universitárias portuguesas demonstra vontade de se vincular de forma efetiva aos canais geradores de conhecimento, dentro e fora das instituições a que pertencem. Esta vaga modernizadora, porém, não parece ainda ter conseguido resolver alguns problemas. Neste cenário, o setor da edição académica e científica em Portugal continua em boa medida a depender, em termos de circulação e visibilidade, de editoras não universitárias, principalmente no campo das ciências sociais e humanas.

This chapter, as part of the book Livros e Universidades (published in 2017 by Com-Arte, a São Paulo-based publisher), intends to explore recent dynamics within the Portuguese university book market. The activity of the university presses in Portugal, despite lagging a decade and a half behind countries such as Brazil in what concerns a similar set of transformations, clearly depicts ongoing changes, albeit in heterogeneous fashion. On the other hand, a growing number of Portuguese university presses demonstrates a commitment towards knowledge generating channels, inside and outside their institutions. Nevertheless, such a modernizing wave has not been the solution to all the problems the university presses have to face. Given this set of circumstances, the scientific and scholarly publishing sector still relies heavily for visibility and circulatory purposes on private-owned non university presses, particularly in the field of the social sciences and humanities.

While there are new and enabling conditions for university presses to increase production and to widen distribution, the question remains: How can African university presses make the most of these opportunities? Most likely, the answer lies in deploying the technological changes in production, distribution and marketing made possible by digitisation and network effects of the internet. At the same time, propelled by a growing perception in academia of ‘robber capitalism’ on the part of publishers as they protect their oligopoly in the face of dissolving spatial barriers and diminishing value add, we are witnessing a contrary trend: the emergence of the knowledge commons. However, this emergence takes place in an institutional context long dominated by an editorial logic and, in more recent times, by the logic of the market.

A holistic way of approaching the question of how African university presses can reposition themselves in support of the broader shift of some African universities towards a greater focus on research, is to consider shifts in the dominant institutional logic in the academic publishing industry. Based on a baseline survey of university presses in Africa, in-depth case studies of selected university presses, and an analysis of the publishing choices made by African academics, this research project examined the opportunities and constraints faced by university presses in Africa.

It provides an overview of the African university press landscape and shows that there is a small, active group of university presses. University presses in Africa are not yet making use of technological advances to reconfigure their production, distribution and marketing processes, nor are they experimenting with new publishing models such as open access.

While case studies of selected university presses surfaced unsurprising challenges (such as scarce resources and limited capacity), they also show that university presses in Africa are constrained by institutional logics that are holding them back from experimenting with new ways of doing things.

The research also reveals that an alarmingly high number of academic authors at one flagship research university in Africa are choosing to publish monographs with predatory publishers.

The report concludes with a set of pragmatic recommendations; recommendations that are simultaneously attuned to the opportunities and to the realities of African university presses as revealed by the research conducted.

Sustainability of a university press is highly dependent on the availability of the manuscript. It happens because the script serves as the main raw material in the process of publishing. Without a script, it will be difficult for a university press to run a book publishing activities. Party who is considered has a very strategic function in generating script is lecturer. As an effort for increasing the number of incoming manuscripts, university press needs to work out and carry out communication strategy. Based on this idea, the researcher interests to apply communication strategy as her reseacrh theme. This study aims to describe the implementation of communication strategy which is worked by UIN-Maliki Press in publishing books made by the lecturers in 2011-2013. This research is a qualitative case study method. The data was collected by conducting observations, conducting interviews and reviewing documents. The results of this study show that in year 2011, UIN-Maliki Press used 3 (three) strategies, those are informative strategy, a combined strategy of informative and persuasive, and persuasive strategy it self. In year 2012, UIN-Maliki Press used 3 (three) strategies, a combined strategy of informative and persuasive, persuasive strategy, and a combined strategy of educative, informative and persuasive strategies. In year 2013, UIN-Maliki Press did 2 (two) strategies, a combined strategy of informative and persuasive, and persuasive strategy by it self. In year 2011-2013, the strategy used most by UIN-Maliki Press is persuasive.

Keywords: Communication Strategy, University Press, The Book.

Resumen Se analiza la actividad editorial de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) desde una perspectiva organizacional para conocer su desempeño como sistema editorial de una Institución de Educación Superior (IES) dependiente de financiamiento público. Como metodología se utiliza el nuevo institucionalismo sociológico como método de diagnóstico organizacional porque éste concibe a las IES como organizaciones suaves en que los criterios e indicadores formales de desempeño económico no se aplican de manera directa ni se manifiestan explícitamente en la estructura y prácticas de la organización, privilegiando el alto contenido simbólico de las medidas de eficiencia y racionalidad formal. La aplicación de este método –durante el primer semestre de 2013 y mayo de 2014-en instancias editoriales, representativas de los cuatro subsistemas en que se organizan las tareas editoriales de la UNAM, muestran al quehacer editorial institucional como susceptible de incurrir en prácticas isomórficas o de homogeneización de tipo burocrático perceptibles a través de la alta descentralización de la actividad editorial; falta de coordinación entre la Dirección General de Publicaciones y Fomento Editorial y el resto de las instancias editoriales universitarias; escasa colaboración de la UNAM con redes de editoriales universitarias nacionales y extranjeras, etc. Abstract: The publishing activity of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) is analyzed from an organizational perspective to know its editorial system performance as a Higher Education Institution (HEI) dependent on public funding. The new sociological institutionalism as a method of organizational diagnosis is used because it conceives of HEI as mild organizations that criteria and formal economic performance indicators are not applied directly or explicitly manifested in the structure and practices of the organization privileging the high symbolic content of the efficiency measures and formal rationality. The

Scholarly book publishing is in trouble. Two contrary developments can be observed internationally. On the one hand, there are perceptions in academia of ‘robber capitalism’ on the part of the large commercial publishers as they protect their oligopoly in the face of dissolving spatial barriers and diminishing value add. On the other hand, we are witnessing a contrary trend: the emergence of the knowledge commons; a new form of social capitalism made possible inter alia by the latest technological advancements. In the midst of these contrary trends are African university presses – some over half a century old, others started in the last decade – that have an important mission and unique contribution to make to the African knowledge base.

This paper presents the current status of university presses in India, and how they are interlinked with their prestigious fellowship programmes and academic research. Indian university presses were identified from DELNET union catalogue of books. Their publishing patterns are studied based on MIS reports available or generated from their respective websites. The paper also analyzes global visibility and availability of produced knowledge through institutional and external web catalogues, e-commerce sites and utilization of book promotion avenues. It is found that, as of now, Indian university presses don’t publish e-books. Many of these presses don’t even have a dedicated website for disseminating detailed bibliographic information on available titles.

Con un debate que pone especial énfasis en el papel de las nuevas tecnologías y la tendencia hacia el acceso abierto de la investigación académica, sobre todo la que es fruto de financiación pública. Por la tardenoche, se celebrará una mesa redonda en el Círculo de Bellas Artes en la que se hablará del libro en sí, de su contexto y repercusión.

The arrival of printing in South Africa occasioned a great many social changes: it facilitated governance, participated in the production and propagation of anthropological and scientific ‘knowledge’ about the place and its peoples, required the development of orthographies for African languages, and served the spread of western education and of Christianity—with all of its attendant complex and ambiguous consequences. Print, Text & Book Cultures in South Africa explores the power of print and the politics of the book in South Africa from a range of disciplinary perspectives—historical, bibliographic, literary critical, sociological, and cultural studies. The essays collected here, by leading international scholars, address a range of topics as varied as: the role of print cultures in contests over the nature of the colonial public sphere in the nineteenth century; orthography; iimbongi, orature and the canon; book-collecting and libraries; print and transnationalism; Indian Ocean cosmopolitanisms; books in war; how the fates of South African texts, locally and globally, have been affected by their material instantiations; photocomics and other ephemera; censorship, during and after apartheid; books about art and books as art; local academic publishing; and the challenge of ‘book history’ for literary and cultural criticism in contemporary South Africa.

This volume is the most comprehensive and representative introduction to the study of print and of the book in South Africa, showcasing the best of current research (while problematising the nature of ‘the book’, and exploring the difficult conditions for print in the country). It takes the measure of the impact of book-historical and related fields of study on South African scholarship, while pointing the way towards avenues for future research.

Authors (in order of appearance): Leon de Kock, Isabel Hofmeyr, Meg Samuelson, John Gouws, Lucy Graham, Rita Barnard, Andrew van der Vlies, Jarad Zimbler, Patrick Flanery, Lize Kriel, Archie Dick, Hedley Twidle, Jeff Opland, Deborah Seddon, Lily Saint, Peter McDonald, Margriet van der Waal, Natasha Distiller, Sarah Nuttall, Bronwyn Law-Viljoen, Beth Le Roux.

*

Print, Text and Book Cultures in South Africa is a field-defining contribution to the country’s literary scholarship. Andrew van der Vlies’s introductory essay maps the conceptual terrain in a systematic and engaging way, illustrating its relevance to South Africa’s literary and cultural history. The essays that follow demonstrate the archival richness and liveliness of the field, while opening doors to future research. Beyond South Africa, the book will be exemplary in showing how book histories develop under postcolonial conditions.
-- David Attwell, author of J.M. Coetzee: South Africa and the Politics of Writing (1993) and Rewriting Modernity: Studies in Black South African Literary History (2005), and co-editor of The Cambridge History of South African Literature (2012)

South African literary criticism has been rejuvenated by an emphasis on the materiality of book production and circulation, and the historical embedding of those institutions and practices that turned texts into ‘works’ considered worthy of our attention. This elegantly framed collection of readable, provocative essays examines the relations between the production and consumption of books to present a rich social history of South African print cultures. It is indispensible reading for anyone seeking to come to terms with the processes and practices, both national and transnational, that have fashioned this country’s literature and the ways in which it is read and understood.
-- Michael Titlestad, University of the Witwatersrand

This is an extraordinarily rewarding book. Its essays by key scholars and book-trade practitioners attend to the rich complexity of the varied trajectories and meanings of South African print culture. The introduction by Andrew van der Vlies offers a tour de force statement of the complex interplay between South African social, political, and economic realities and book history methodologies; each piece that follows charts a compelling course through the shifting contexts for South African print, whether to bring those contexts to bear on literary interpretation, or to highlight the interdependence of print and history.
-- Sarah Brouillette, author of Postcolonial Writers in the Global Literary Marketplace (2007)

Wide-ranging and sophisticated, this collection of essays does not simply add more case studies to the book-historical canon but contributes new models to the debate.
-- Leah Price, Harvard University

Thought provoking, wide ranging in its subject material, and dynamically edited, this collection marks a turning point in the study of book cultures in South Africa. These essays, exemplars of recently published work in the field, draw attention to the rich, interdisciplinary seams of material uncovered by key exponents of South African print culture history. The work as a whole demonstrates how one can engage with the confluence of text, people, history, culture, and print technology in South African contexts. It will prove one of the first ports of call for anyone wishing to undertake further journeys in this subject area in the future.
-- David Finkelstein, co-editor of The Book History Reader (2001) and The Edinburgh History of the Book in Scotland (vol. 4, 2007), and co-author of An Introduction to Book History (2005)

NOTA EXPLICATIVA: Como investigador espero que honesto, al colocar la noticia de este breve artículo, incluí el enlace que permite ir directamente a las páginas de Unelibros no. 36, dejando mi documento aquí en blanco. Con esa magia cibernética que todos conocemos y que no deja de ser motivo de consternación (lo digo en serio), esa voluntad mía de facilitar al curioso lector la lectura (valga la redundancia) del susodicho artículo en la revista que tuvo a bien publicarlo, y aprovecho para agradecerles la invitación, se ha transformado en lo siguiente: aparece la revista en su totalidad en el espacio que yo había dejado en blanco esperando incitar al lector a darse un paseo por las páginas de la revista en su propio espacio, y no en este. Tomaré inmediatamente pluma y papel para pedir permiso para mantener este pdf en esta página por amistad y cortesía hacia la edición universitaria pública y la revista Unelibros. No me cabe duda de que Academia.edu ha hecho esta labor de transformación de enlace en pdf con la mejor intención algorítmica posible. Pero por ese mismo respeto, amistad y cortesía del que hablaba antes, no estaría demás que el algoritmo pidiera permiso a quien en fin de cuentas da la cara en esta página. Espero que al volver a esta página el algoritmo no haya borrado esta nota.
Saludos cordiales,
Luis GF


A brief reflexion on the state of public university publications in France in which consideration is given to changing editorial practices.

Published in Unilibros, No. 36, pp. 15-16 (see link)

This is an invited piece (solicited by Bob Nardini) for a special issue of Against the Grain on libraries and university presses. Bob writes:

Wait till you read Paul Royster, of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Paul, in “A Library Publishing Manifesto,” explains exactly why he thinks library publishing is needed to atone for the “sins” of commercial publishers and what he counts as the failings of university presses. If readers find his contribution “overly rhetorical” or “hyperbolic,” as he admits they might, they’ll be clear on where Paul stands. They’ll also find as vigorous an argument for the value of library publishing as they’re likely to encounter anywhere, as well as some practical advice for library publishers, all of it based in part upon what Paul has learned directing Zea Books, Nebraska’s own program. Last spring I heard Paul deliver a version of his article at the Library Publishing Forum, a meeting mentioned by several contributors. Library publishers and university press publishers were side-by-side for the first time at a national meeting like this one, and when they met in Kansas City there was an extraordinary level of energy. Sometimes it was energy over what libraries and university presses could do together. Sometimes it was energy over what libraries should do on their own. Sometimes the mood was friendly. Sometimes it was not.

Within the scholarly communications ecosystem, scholarly publishers are a keystone species. University presses—as well as academic societies, research institutions, and other scholarly publishers—strive to fulfil our mission of ‘making public the fruits of scholarly research’ as effectively as possible within that ecosystem. While that mission has remained constant, in recent years the landscape in which we carry out this mission has altered dramatically. The expertise residing within university presses can help the scholarly enterprise prosper in both influence and impact as it moves ever more fully digital. However, the simple product-sales models of the twentieth century, devised when information was scarce and expensive, are clearly inappropriate for the twenty-first-century scholarly ecosystem. This report (a) identifies elements of the current scholarly publishing systems that are worth protecting and retaining throughout this and future periods of transition; (b) explores bus...

Columbia’s Center for Digital Research and Scholarship (CDRS) and Fordham University Press (FUP) have combined forces in a library-press partnership to create online a book authored by Columbia anthropology professor Neni Panourgiá entitled Dangerous Citizens: The Greek Left and the Terror of the State. The print book was published by FUP in August. Its online sibling – sharing parentage and intellectual DNA, but quite different in appearance – launches in December, designed and hosted (at http://dangerouscitizens.columbia.edu) by CDRS. Our collaboration offers a useful model for how such partnerships can succeed, by leveraging the expertise and creativity of two groups both fully devoted to bringing the author’s scholarly vision to life, one as her publisher and the other as an organization whose mission it is to serve the digital needs of the Columbia faculty. Owing to this shared commitment to the author, we have found this model of collaboration to open up opportunities both for distributing the burden and participating together in the creation of this work in ways that might not otherwise exist within an intra-institutional arrangement, as is more usual in press-library partnerships.

This presentation outlines the divisions of labor and joint efforts that took full advantage of the combined strengths of our teams and the ongoing communication necessary to make such a collaboration work smoothly, and it describes the challenges that faced both our teams in bringing to life in two distinct forms the vision the author had for her project. The presentation concludes with a demonstration of the newly launched online book, showing how it is dramatically different from being merely the book online, and will discuss the features we will be rolling out in the next months as the online book continues to develop through additional functionality, content modifications, and user contributions.

Academia prizes interdisciplinarity. But what of publishing interdisciplinary journals? They hold the promise of appealing to two different disciplines yet run the risk of appealing to neither. Here we consider one interdisciplinary field, the medical humanities, and undertake a thought experiment: What questions should a publisher ask when considering the possibility of starting a new interdisciplinary journal?

Rebecca Kennison presents one of two talks -- the other by along with Helen Tartar -- about how Professor Neni Panourgiá, Columbia
University’s Center for Digital Research and Scholarship, and Fordham University Press are collaborating to produce a dynamic online presentation of digital materials complementing the print
version of Panourgiá’s Dangerous Citizens: The Greek Left and the Terror of the State. The project lives at dangerouscitizens.columbia.edu. Video available at http://hdl.handle.net/10022/AC:P:15156.

This essay traces how Neni Panourgiá, Professor of Anthropology at Columbia University, Fordham University Press and the Columbia Center for Digital Research and Scholarship worked together to produce an online book that strives not to replace but to augment the printed book it accompanies. The 'synaesthetic' reading experience provided by the online book enables readers to experience more fully the author's rich fieldwork materials and to customize their own reading of the various texts that make up the book, thereby gaining a better sense of the multiple levels of anthropological analysis. Moreover, the online book can remain open-ended, enabling ongoing updating. Particular attention is devoted to the challenges faced by the digital project and the aspects of the partnership that made the project a success.

While there are new and enabling conditions for university presses to increase production and to widen distribution, the question remains: How can African university presses make the most of these opportunities? Most likely, the answer lies in deploying the technological changes in production, distribution and marketing made possible by digitisation and network effects of the internet. <br> <br> At the same time, propelled by a growing perception in academia of 'robber capitalism' on the part of publishers as they protect their oligopoly in the face of dissolving spatial barriers and diminishing value add, we are witnessing a contrary trend: the emergence of the knowledge commons. However, this emergence takes place in an institutional context long dominated by an editorial logic and, in more recent times, by the logic of the market. <br> <br> A holistic way of approaching the question of how African university presses can reposition themselves in sup...

A presente dissertação tem por objetivo investigar a Imprensa
da Universidade do Recife (IUR), sua oficina gráfica e suas publicações.
Através de uma abordagem histórica, o órgão é discutido desde o seu
início, em 1955, até o final de seu período, quando torna-se editora,
em 1972. Dessas quase duas décadas, são levantados e discutidos, o
seu contexto de criação e a sua estruturação enquanto órgão da então
Universidade do Recife. A oficina gráfica, setor mais amplamente
discutido, é conceituada e tem expostas suas práticas de composição
e impressão, bem como de seus agentes, consistindo num trabalho
investigativo através das diversas fontes consultadas, chegando-se,
assim, às publicações oriundas desta oficina. Mais de setenta livros
foram catalogados e observados, gerando um quantitativo de dados
que ajudaram a traçar a trajetória da Imprensa no período. Tratando
esses livros enquanto objetos de informação, eles protagonizam a
parte final da dissertação, demonstrando, através de uma produção
diversa e heterogênea, as fases produtivas pelas quais o órgão passou.
Com esse aprofundamento nos livros, mais precisa e detidamente nas
capas, uma relação direta com artistas gráficos do período que, com o
passar dos anos, passam a integrar como agentes (internos e externos)
a Imprensa. Dessa forma, foi possível perceber o grau de importância
deste órgão dentro do cenário editorial e gráfico pernambucano, principalmente na década de 1960.

Revolutionary innovations in the technologies of producing manuscripts and of turning them into books have led to an explosion of new titles. They number millions globally each year. Tens of thousands in this ocean represent books in English in the humanities and social sciences. One driver of this congestion of academic titles is the prevailing model of higher education institutions. Universities are by definition also research institutions; professors are by definition also scholars; and scholars are distinguished by their publications, books primarily.By removing the “publish or perish” mantra from centre stage can we expect detectable relief both on the oversaturated academic book market and about the mental well-being of higher education professors.