No amount of open access will fix the broken job market Publishing strategies for early-career open access advocates in the humanities Dr. Samuel moore

Sam the early-career researcher Recently completed PhD at King’s College London Common Struggles: Policy-based vs. scholar-led approaches to open access in the humanities Interested in open access, the commons and governance of research infrastructures Working in ‘critical publishing studies’ – a field comprising information studies, critical theory and science & technology studies

Sam the mid-career publisher Worked in publishing for 10 years Scientific journals for PLOS (PLOS ONE and PLOS Genetics) Humanities books, journals and publishing platforms for Open Book Publishers and Ubiquity Press Supporting collaborative infrastructures for scholar-led open access through the Radical Open Access Collective

Academia as ‘side hustle’

There are very few secure academic jobs for early-career researchers in the humanities

What does this mean for how Early-career researchers publish their books? Your choice of publisher confers symbolic capital: more capital = job Precarious researchers need to think carefully about where to publish their monographs ‘First’ monograph needs to be published with a prestigious press (based on unknown criteria…)

This situation prevents all the exciting practices associated with open access!

Experimental publishing

Open peer review / collaborative authorship / anonymous authorship

Ethical / political publishing

How do we solve this problem? Open access is clearly not a solution to the lack of jobs available Nor is it fair to ask early-career researchers to bear the risk for the transition to open access books So how do we address the problem of prestige publishing and open access?

Should we change tenure/promotion guidelines to reward open access?

Senior scholars need to lead the way Scholars with stable employment are able to take on more risk Often they will be rewarded for risky/innovative scholarship in a way that their junior colleagues will not be (seen as leaders in their field) To help normalise open access for long-form scholarship, senior scholars should lead the way (The Radical Open Access Collective site contains a list of 60+ scholar-led academic publishers, for example!)

Publishing strategies are not a zero-sum game Publishing strategies comprise a range of different kinds of work: Edited volumes, articles, experimental research, blogging, etc. Short open access monographs like Forerunners, Elements or Essential Knowledge Open access through other routes (repositories, etc.) Supporting open access book publishers (as editors, reviewers, etc.)

Policies for OA monographs (i. e Policies for OA monographs (i.e., Plan s) should stimulate experimentation Rather than forcing people to publish open access, the OA policy framework should stimulate new and alternative approaches to open access monograph provision Work with the broader motivations for the open access movement (not just a lack of public access to knowledge) Policies should aim to create the conditions for scholars to experiment with open practices

Build it and they will (eventually) come…

Ultimately, open access only makes sense as part of a project to resist and transform cultures of marketisation within publishing and higher education