From Publishing Perspectives:
Said to be the UK’s first fully open-access university publisher, UCL Press—University College London—has announced today (May 24) that more than 1 million copies of its books have been downloaded in the international marketplace.
The press has been in operation for three years, and produces scholarly monographs, edited collections, and textbooks. Some particulars of the activity reported by the company:
- UCL Press books are downloaded approximately 913 times per day
- Each title achieves approximately 12,500 downloads
- Its books have reached readers in 222 of what the press is “a possible 223 countries and/or territories”
- UCL’s books, according to the company, have saved readers more than £60 million, being published as free-of-charge volumes via open access
- The press’ most popular title to date is How the World Changed Social Media by Daniel Miller, with 227,396 downloads
. . . .
UCL Library Services pro-vice-provost Paul Ayris is quoted, saying, “Institutional open access publishing is transformative, being a completely new model of how universities engage with readers and with society.
“In the 15th century, the invention of movable type printing in the West transformed Europe. In the 21st century, open access publishing can do the same.”
Link to the rest at Publishing Perspectives