Open Access Publishing in Practice – Author experiences and insights from the London Open Science and Scholarship Festival

On 23rd April 2026, we hosted an online panel discussion on ‘Open Access publishing in practice‘ as part of the London Open Science and Scholarship Festival. The event brought together authors and publishers to focus on authors’ experiences of publishing open access books – why they chose this path, how it worked in practice, and what impact it has had for their work.

The session was chaired by Paula Kennedy, our Head of Publishing, who opened by situating the discussion within the Press’s broader mission as a predominantly open access book publisher based within the School of Advanced Study. While open access is often framed in terms of mandates, licences, and funding models, the aim of this session was to foreground author voices and real‑world outcomes.

Author perspectives across disciplines

The panel reflected a wide range of disciplines, career stages, and publication types.

Dr Sarah Fox (Senior Lecturer in History at Edge Hill University) reflected on publishing her first monograph open access with the University of London Press. Sarah’s book, Giving Birth in Eighteenth-Century England, was published as part of the New Historical Perspectives series, which has a dedicated focus on Early Career Researcher authors. Initially motivated more by editorial support than by open access itself, Dr Fox described how the experience transformed her view of OA publishing. She highlighted its importance for students, precariously employed researchers without institutional access, and international readers. Download data revealed a global readership far beyond what Dr Fox had anticipated, reinforcing the role of open access in democratising access to humanities research. Unexpected forms of impact followed, including media consultancy and public engagement opportunities that arose directly because her work was freely available.

Professor David Luke (Professor in Practice and Strategic Director at the Firoz Lalji Institute for Africa at LSE) discussed two edited volumes published open access with LSE Press – How Africa Trades and How Africa Eats. Both books were explicitly designed to reach audiences in Africa and the Global South, as well as policymakers and development practitioners. Open access was therefore central to the research design, not an afterthought. Usage data showed substantial engagement across Africa and beyond, supporting policy discussions and enabling further funded research. Professor Luke also reflected on the environmental implications of digital publishing, arguing that open access and print‑on‑demand models have a role to play in reducing the carbon footprint of academic publishing.

Stijn van Ewijk (Lecturer in Environmental Engineering at UCL) offered a helpful perspective from environmental engineering, discussing his co-authored open access textbook Waste Management and Circular Economy (published by UCL Press). For Dr Van Ewijk, open access was fundamentally about equity for students and practitioners. The book has been downloaded tens of thousands of times across more than 170 countries, far outstripping print sales. Dr Van Ewijk also emphasised the practical benefits of publishing the book for teaching, professional visibility, and engagement with industry, noting that the fact that its open access status removed the discomfort often associated with promoting one’s own work.

Peter Cunliffe‑Jones, journalist and Senior Visiting Researcher at the University of Westminster, spoke about his book Fake News – What’s the Harm? (published by the University of Westminster Press). Drawing on his background in fact‑checking as founder of Africa Check and information integrity, he argued that publishing this work behind a paywall would have been incompatible with its purpose. For practitioners countering misinformation worldwide, access to reliable research is often the primary barrier. Open access enabled global reach, training activity, and follow‑on funding, and allowed this important book to function as a shared public resource rather than a closed academic output.

Funding, prestige, and new publishing models

A substantial part of the discussion focused on funding and perceived prestige – two issues that continue to shape author decision‑making. Panelists and publishers highlighted the growth of diamond open access models, where no fees are charged to authors, and the emergence of collective funding initiatives such as library‑supported membership schemes including the Open Book Collective.

From a publisher perspective, Dr Philippa Grand (LSE Press) addressed common misconceptions about prestige, emphasising that open access university presses operate rigorous peer review processes aligned with best practice across scholarly publishing. The discussion between authors fascinatingly challenged often-cited assumptions that open access and academic quality are in tension, pointing instead to evidence of strong citation rates, awards, and wider global engagement for high-quality research.

Open access as a strategic choice

Across the presentations and engaging discussion, the panel consistently framed open access as a strategic choice shaped by discipline, audience, career stage, and research goals. Authors emphasised the importance of asking practical questions – who needs to read this work, where they are located, and what barriers they face – and then choosing publishing models accordingly.

The session concluded with reflections on the evolving and important role of university presses, not simply as producers of books, but as creative and collaborative partners supporting authors in maximising reach, impact, and engagement in an increasingly digital research environment.

Further information

If you’re interested in finding out more about open access and notions of ‘prestige’ in academic publishing, you may be interested in the new blog series from the Open Access Books Network (OABN), Born Open: Rethinking Prestige in Scholarly Book Publishing.

The London Open Science and Scholarship Festival was a week-long event (20^th-24^th April 2026) co-ordinated by the UCL Office for Open Science and Scholarship and involving a range of London institutions, including the University of London Press, LSE Press, the University of Westminster Press, the Francis Crick Institute, the British Library, Imperial College London, King’s College London, LSE Library and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) Press. The free programme of events explored topics including gender and ethics in open research, AI and open access, open science careers, Open Educational Resources and funder perspectives on open research.

All the authors featured in this panel discussion had books published by university presses who are part of the Open Institutional Publishing Association (OIPA), a new community of practice supporting high-quality, expert open access publishing within UK universities.