Abstract
This paper outlines the UK publishing landscape for the social and political sciences, with particular reference to academic journals. The changes and challenges being brought to this environment by open access (OA) are described and the response of UK publishers examined. While some of the initial caution among publishers towards OA in the social and political sciences is beginning to recede, the pressures of funding, perception and engagement remain considerable. Despite scepticism from some quarters about the future role of so-called ‘legacy’ publishers, it is argued that their skills, knowledge and innovation will make them a valuable part of the evolving, and ever more varied, scholarly communications arena.
Highlights
The online version of this article is available Open Access ‘Openness’ has been one of the key buzzwords of scholarly communication over the past few years
The diversity of open initiatives means that they touch upon a great deal of academic publishers’ output, it is in their journals divisions where the greatest impact has been felt so far
The United Kingdom punches above its weight when it comes to academic social science publishing
Summary
The United Kingdom punches above its weight when it comes to academic social science publishing. Most of the publishers with extensive social science journal portfolios are either headquartered in the United Kingdom (Cambridge University Press, Emerald, Oxford University Press, Palgrave Macmillan, Taylor & Francis) or else have significant bases there (Elsevier, SAGE, Springer, Wiley). Alongside these big hitters are a number of smaller but thriving operations such as The Policy Press and the university presses of Liverpool and Edinburgh, as well as small-scale operations such as The White Horse Press or Imprint Academic. There is too, as is especially evident in the United States, a mood of aggression in some quarters against the funding of social science research, with political science taking the brunt of these attacks. The combination of these factors is having an effect on all aspects of the academic publishing business, and acts as both accelerator and brake with regards to the development of social science OA journals
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