The Copim community is an international group of researchers, universities, librarians, open access book publishers and infrastructure providers. It is building community-owned, open systems and infrastructures to enable open-access book publishing to flourish. The collaboration is being funded by Research England and Arcadia Fund, via two consecutive projects between November 2019 and April 2026.[2]
The community's name is derived from the original project acronym of COPIM (Community-led Open Publication Infrastructures for Monographs). During its first project phase (11/2019-04/2023), the community has been involved in the foundational project of the same name. As of 05/2023, this is now followed by a second project phase under the title of Open Book Futures,[3] through which the Copim community aims to expand and accelerate the uptake of the infrastructures developed during its initial project phase.
Following the principle of 'Scaling Small',[4] the project has developed a set of proof-of-concepts of non-profit and community-owned, open infrastructures to enable open access book publishing to prosper.[5]
Copim has been named as a Supporting Action[6] in UKRI's 2020 Open Access Review Consultation.[7]
Work Packages
In seven distinct Work Packages, the COPIM project explored:
how to scope and build support for an integration of open access books in libraries;[8][9][10][11][12]
how to build a collective of librarians, publishers and researchers invested in sustainable OA through a not-for-profit, community-governed OA book revenue management and information exchange platform;[13]
how to establish funding models that enable a transition of legacy publishers' existing business models to non-BPC OA;[14][15][16]
research on, and implementation of robust governance models for not-for-profit, community-owned digital infrastructures such as those being developed in other work packages;[17][18][19][20][21]
channels of OA book discovery and dissemination, culminating in the development of an open-source OA book metadata creation and dissemination system and service;[22][23]
ways to more closely align existing software, tools and technologies, workflows and infrastructures for experimental publishing with the workflows of OA book publishers;[24]
how to establish more robust ways to tackle the technical and legal impediments to a more streamlined process of archiving and preservation of OA books technical and legal solutions.[25]
At the end of the first project phase (04/2023), the list of key outputs, activities and proof-of-concepts delivered across the initial project's lifespan include:
publication of 13 major scoping reports, 3 annual project reports, plus a variety of research papers published in peer-reviewed journals, the successful organisation and documentation of 26 workshops, with more than 220 national and international stakeholders representing 25 countries, and the presentation of COPIM work at more than 120 international conferences, workshops, and events.
set-up an iterative extension of an Outreach and Dissemination network that is combining a variety of channels, including social media and open community platforms.
following the platform's beta launch in 2021, the successful inception of Thoth, COPIM's Open Dissemination System, as a Community Interest Company under the name of Thoth Open Metadata CIC. Thoth now makes open access book metadata available in an open, transparent, and participatory way via its open API, and publishers can use the platform's interface to create rich, open metadata for direct dissemination in a variety of global channels.
launch of the Open Book Collective platform and community of OA book publishers, infrastructure providers, and libraries that are collaborating to bring about a future for OA book publishing free from inequitable Book Processing Charges. The Open Book Collective has successfully reached its originally-envisioned revenue target, and has also implemented a robust legal, financial, and governance model to ensure longer-term stability of the Open Book Collective legal entity.
further strengthening of the Opening the Future revenue model via the two publishers, CEU Press and Liverpool University Press, that COPIM has been working with. Through Opening the Future, both presses to date (04/2023) have released 15 new monographs between them, and have accrued enough funding through the programme for approximately 45 titles to be published OA in the coming months and years.
launch of the Experimental Publishing Compendium, as a comprehensive online resource bringing together tools, practices, and books to promote and support the publication of experimental book publications.[26]
establishing the Thoth Archiving Network, a community-led collaboration between university repositories and national libraries to facilitate archiving and preservation of OA books via COPIM's Open Dissemination System Thoth, particularly those published by small and medium-sized publishers that might not have the resources to invest in other, more expensive means of archiving.[27]
As part of the second project phase of Open Book Futures (OBF), the work package structure has been slightly adapted to accommodate the shift in focus towards accelerating the uptake of the proof-of-concepts that have been delivered during the first phase.
In doing so, Open Book Futures's overall goal is to increase COPIM's long-term impact and ensure that a wide range of voices have the opportunity to shape the future of open access book publishing. In order to amplify bibliodiverse and equitable community-led approaches to OA book publishing, OBF aims not just to strengthen existing networks in the UK and North America, but also to engage further with publishers, universities, and infrastructure providers in a diverse set of national and linguistic contexts, including Africa, Australasia, Continental Europe, and Latin America.[28]
Opening the Future
Opening the Future, a revenue model developed in COPIM's Business Models Work Package, is a collective subscription model through which subscribing libraries can get unlimited access to a selection of a chosen publisher's backlist, with perpetual access after three years. The generated membership revenue is used by the publisher solely to produce new Open access monographs.[29]
^Barnes, Lucy; Bickley, Rachel (2021-03-31). "How to shake up ebook publishing". Research Professional News. Archived from the original on 2021-03-31. Retrieved 2021-07-11.
