Stockholm University Press (SUP) joins the annual celebration of International Open Access Week. This year, the theme is “Open for Climate Justice“, which is an important topic for us.
As research is becoming more cross-disciplinary, we believe that all academic areas serve the purpose of educating people and sharing ideas and innovations to benefit the climate. By providing an opportunity for authors to openly publish their books and journals at a reasonable price, we also contribute to opening up access to knowledge for all and climate justice globally. All published content is available on the Stockholm University Press website for anyone to download and read – and researchers from all over the world are welcome to submit book proposals to our book series.
Some projects we are involved in support knowledge about the climate in several ways.
Two new Journals in Meteorology and Oceanography
In 2022, the journals Tellus A and Tellus B, owned by the International Meteorological Institute (IMI) at Stockholm University, transferred to SUP from another publisher. These journals disseminate articles on meteorology and oceanography (Tellus A) and chemical and physical meteorology (Tellus B). In addition, these journals’ observations of climate change are well documented. We are currently working on uploading the historical archives of the two journals, which will hopefully be completed within the next few months.
An upcoming – new textbook about numerical methods in meteorology and oceanography
The book Numerical methods in Meteorology and Oceanography is a textbook by Kristoffer Döös, Peter Lundberg and Altor Aidama Campino, all from the Department of Meteorology at Stockholm University. This textbook is aimed at postgraduate students as an introduction to numerical modelling of the ocean and the atmosphere. The ambition of this book project and similar initiatives from teachers at Stockholm University is to open up access to literature with a pedagogical aim, ensuring that students can find affordable options. This project has been in the works for quite a while and will be released before the end of the year. It is, furthermore, the first book from SUP based on a LaTeX manuscript, allowing a more accurate display of, for example, mathematical algorithms used for climate modelling.
Challenges in finding sustainable business models for open access journals and books
The business models for open access are slightly different from traditional subscription or book sales. One of the most significant challenges for us as open access publishers is to help authors and editors to find other ways of paying for the production and dissemination of books and journals. The challenge of finding ways to pay for publishing was one of the topics at the OASPA 2022 Conference, discussed particularly in the panel session “Pathways to Open Access: Values-based publishing models”, which the entire SUP team attended. The recorded sessions from the conference are available for anyone to watch online.
The current model for paying for book publishing with SUP is the “Book Processing Charge (BPC)”, which in our case, is made up of only the actual production and service fees as we are a not-for-profit organisation. Guiding authors and editors in finding funding for such fees are easier when research funders’ policies align with the new publishing landscape. One recent example is the updated guidelines from The Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet), where they now mandate publications related to the research projects they fund to be immediately open with a CC BY license on the date of publication. From now on, this also includes book publishing. We welcome this initiative and hope other funders will follow.
Open Access in practice within topics of climate research
As part of the global Open Access Week, Stockholm University Library hosted a webinar, “Open Science in Practice”, on how researchers can publish their work as openly as possible. One of Stockholm University Press’ Managing Editors, Sofie Wennström, contributed to the program by giving a short overview of why it is vital to publish open access and how researchers can make a conscious choice about their publishing effort. One helpful tool mentioned in the webinar is Think.Check.Submit; A website where checklists for authors of both books and book chapters, as well as journal articles, are provided. All presentations are recorded and will be available shortly via the new website about Open Science from Stockholm University. The Stockholm University Press is an essential service provided for researchers, mentioned in the Open Science Policy adopted by the University President in September this year.
Another activity in focus during Open Access Week is a new podcast episode in English from the Library podcast “Bakom Bokhyllan“. The episode presents interviews with Nina Kirchner, Associate Professor of Glaciology and John Fitzpatrick, Associate Professor at the Department of Zoology. They talk about their perspective on open science in practice. They describe how they work with open data and how important transparency is, especially within climate research.
More information about the International Open Access Week.
Stockholm University Press Blog 