Oxford University Press

Earlier today, the British Academy released a research project report, Open access journals in Humanities and Social Science. The project was funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), and was meant to address practical issues that may arise surrounding open access (OA) publishing, particularly in the Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS). There is a significant lack of data used to back up a substantial number of arguments and suggestions for policy surrounding OA. 

Publishers from Belorussia, Pakistan, India, Denmark, Australia, Malaysia, the U.S. and China were among the winners of the first London Book Fair International Book Industry Excellence Awards, given in association with the Publishers Association and presented at the fair yesterday.

Change is afoot at the O.E.D. For the first time in 20 years, the venerable dictionary has a new chief editor, Michael Proffitt, who assumes the responsibility of retaining the vaunted traditions while ensuring relevance in an era of Googled definitions and text talk.

In his first interview since assuming the position in November, Mr. Proffitt - a neat 48-year-old in suit and tie who has defined, researched and managed for the O.E.D. since 1989 - was respectful of the old ways but equally ready to reconsider the dictionary

While we publishers tend to be a pessimistic lot, it's nice every now and again to think about how much technology has advanced and made our lives easier and better over the last century. With that in mind, a set of three silent films from the archives of Oxford University Press, made in 1925 by the Federation of British Industry, on the making of a book.

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Copia, a leading provider of customized digital classroom solutions, today announced it is powering the interactive learning experience behind LearningField. An industry initiative in Australia led by Copyright Agency, LearningField aims to transform classroom instruction by delivering complete, grade-level content aligned with core educational standards in a seamless digital environment.

Canada’s book publishing market is shrinking. It’s facing competition from online retailers and electronic books that you can read on phones, tablets and dedicated e-readers.

Here’s a sign of the decline. Wiley Canada is suspending its local operations — except for sales and marketing — and centralizing its professional and trade publishing in the United States.

“This is difficult news to deliver and absorb,” said an email last week from long-time Wiley editor Karen Milner, who will lose her job on May 31.

Coursera, a leading massive open online course (MOOC) provider, today announced a pilot program with several of the top higher education publishers to expand the availability of their high-quality content and resources, to be facilitated byChegg, the student hub where students can access the tools and materials they need to succeed. 

Starting today, publishers Cengage Learning, Macmillan Higher Education, Norton, Oxford University Press, SAGE, and Wiley will experiment with offering to Coursera students, at no cost for the duration of the course, versions of their e-textbooks, delivered via Chegg’s DRM-protected e-Reader. Coursera is also actively discussing pilot agreements and related alliances with Springer and additional publishers. The importance of rigorously developed pedagogical resources to learning outcomes has been well documented, and today’s announcement will link Coursera’s content to this enhanced learning process. While professors teaching Coursera's broad course offerings have until now been able to assign high-quality content freely available on the Web, they will now be able to work with top publishers to provide an even wider variety of carefully curated teaching and learning materials at no cost to the student.

The Supreme Court clarified early in April in Kirtsaeng v Wiley that the “first use” doctrine in copyright law applied to any work lawfully manufactured anywhere in the world and purchased anywhere in the world. This ruling upset many in the publisher world, and relieved many in the library and bookseller world.

First use means that after purchase of a legally manufactured copyrighted work, the user can resell, rent or loan the work without permission of, or royalty payments to, the copyright holder. The used book and library markets, for example, are built on this foundation. Kirtsaeng was purchasing textbooks printed abroad more cheaply and reselling them in the U.S. Wiley lost on its claim that first use should also apply to the first U.S. sale of books manufactured and purchased abroad.

As Scott Turow, President of the Author’s Guild (of which I am a member), saw it in a New York Times op ed on April 7, “The Slow Death of the American Author,” the Kirtsaeng case was only the latest nail in the coffin awaiting authors. It cut off an additional revenue stream, since secondary sales do not pay royalties.

RSuite CMS a content management system for publishers, recently joined the Association of Educational Publishers (AEP) as an affiliate member. The AEP serves the diverse needs of the entire educational resource community, including publishers, content developers, IT professionals, service providers, researchers, instructors, and communication experts from around the world.

The biggest threat to selling digital intellectual property continues to be the looming threat of online piracy. RosettaBooks, the leading independent eBook publisher, has teamed with Digimarc Guardian(SM) in a case study on preventing piracy to be presented at the 2013 Digital Book World Convention + Expo.