Open Access publishing presents both opportunities and challenges for authors of scholarly monographs, and the University of South Carolina Libraries offered an opportunity for extensive discussion of both at an April 1 breakfast briefing.

Attended by faculty, administrators and staff from across campus, the briefing featured a guest speaker, a panel of USC faculty and opportunities for general discussion of open access publishing of scholarly monographs. It also gave participants an opportunity to explore possible options for expanding open access publication of scholarships produced at the University of South Carolina.

In contrast to traditional monographs, open access publications are digitally produced and made available free of charge. Scholarship that’s published via open access is thus often more widely read and, as a result, can have more impact on the wider scholarly community than work that’s published in more traditional ways.

USC’s Open Carolina initiative, a collaboration between the Libraries and the USC Press, has facilitated open access monograph publication as well as free online publication of other scholarly projects and educational resources produced by USC Columbia faculty, students and staff for several years. The breakfast briefing’s keynote speaker, Director of Shared Collections at the California Digital Library Miranda Bennett, shared a model for expanding open access opportunities even further by describing the University of California system’s initiative to retrospectively make digitally available materials that their faculty have already published with three presses: University of California Press, Oxford University Press, and Duke University Press.

Bennett’s talk, said University Libraries Assistant Head of Acquisitions and Scholarly Communications Amie Freeman, who organized the breakfast briefing along with Libraries Associate Dean for Information Resources and Technologies Heather Heckman, was an opportunity not just to learn more about one specific way in which open access to USC scholarship could be expanded but also a chance to learn more about the USC community’s interest in pursuing open access publication options.

“Our goal was to spark a conversation among faculty, administrators, librarians and the USC Press about the degree to which supporting open access monographs is important to us on this campus,” Freeman said.

Bennett’s talk was followed by a panel discussion featuring Libraries Dean David Banush, USC Press Director Michael McGandy, and professors Kevin Brock, Jessica Elfenbein and Allen Miller, all of whom have produced scholarship that has been made available via open access publishing.

Key takeaways from the panel discussion included that open access publication not only does increase the visibility of authors’ work but also aligns well with universities’ public service mission and that digital and print scholarship are still in an evolving coexistence, with each having their own advantages and posing their own challenges.

“The panel was a great opportunity for people to hear from real-life authors who have published open access and could assess the pros and cons,” said Freeman. “While the specific nature of future OA initiatives at USC is a topic of ongoing discussion, the consensus was that everyone felt encouraged to pursue OA projects, whether individually or institutionally. So it was a very productive conversation, and we appreciate all the colleagues who joined in on it.”