Open access publishing enables free and easy dissemination of work, but this does not meant that it engages with literary culture. Titles are isolated from bookshops, reviews, and cultural conversations.
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The notion that a respected publishing house can be replaced by open access publishing is disproved by examining other recent examples, such as the now-closed University of Adelaide Press.
Rules for the UK’s most prestigious and lucrative literary prize effectively mean it is dominated by big publishers.
Alexis Wright, pictured here in 2007 after winning the Miles Franklin award for her book Carpentaria, is one of many writers first published by University of Queensland Press.
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The University of Queensland Press has a peerless record of discovering, nurturing and supporting Australian writers. A new anthology is a cross-section of many of their writings.
As major publishers chase bestselling books, small ones are leading the way in publishing Australian literary fiction. And of late, they have been sweeping our major literary awards.
In our institutions of higher education and our research labs, scholars first produce, then buy back, their own content. With the costs rising and access restricted, something’s got to give.
There is a huge appetite for science and other research - so why aren’t more academic publications truly ‘open access’?
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Could the real open access please stand up? If more research was published according to true open access principles, we’d see better application of evidence for everyone’s benefit.
Posters of various newspapers paying tribute after the death of former South African President Nelson in 2013.
Siphiwe Sibeko/Reuters
Some have suggested that the publisher and author of ‘Mandela’s Last Years’ were simply attempting to cash in on the Mandela legacy. This is not a basis for the withdrawal of a book.
Saturday is Love Your Bookshop Day –
but bookshops face many challenges.
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Despite dire predictions, bookstores are doing well: they are curators of taste and community hubs. But their challenges are many – from the arrival of Amazon Down Under to a ‘post-truth’ climate that devalues knowledge.