Who we are

The Copim community combines work on funded research projects with wider forms of engagement aimed at building a fairer, more open future for scholarly books.

The community was established during the Community-led Open Publication Infrastructures for Monographs (COPIM) project, which ran from November 2019 to April 2023.

Now, many Copim community members are working on COPIM’s successor project: Open Book Futures, which started in May 2023 and is due to complete its work in April 2026.

Funders

The Copim community research projects – COPIM and Open Book Futures – were both made possible thanks to grants from the following:

• Arcadia – Arcadia is a charitable foundation that works to protect nature, preserve cultural heritage and promote open access to knowledge. Since 2002 Arcadia has awarded more than $1 billion to organizations around the world.

• Research England Development (RED) Fund (UKRI) – a fund supporting institutional-level innovative projects in research and knowledge exchange including collaborations between education providers and between education providers and business.

  

Open Book Futures consortium

The Open Book Futures project is led by Lancaster University, and comprises a consortium made up of the following organisations:

• Birkbeck, University of London

• Coventry University

• Directory of Open Access Books

• Jisc

• Lancaster University

• Loughborough University Library

• Open Book Collective

• Open Book Publishers

• punctum books

• Thoth Open Metadata

• Trinity College, Cambridge University

  

Open Book Futures partners

The consortium is collaborating with a range of partners, including:

• African Platform for Open Scholarship / University of Cape Town

• Curtin Open Knowledge Initiative

• Digital Preservation Coalition

• Educopia Institute

• Knowledge Futures

• Lyrasis

• Next Generation Library Publishing

• OPERAS

• Public Knowledge Project

• Research Libraries UK

• Scottish Universities Press

• Scottish Confederation of University and Research Libraries

• SciELO Books

• SPARC Europe

  

Open Book Futures project team

Work Package 1 ~ Project Management

Lead: Joe Deville (Lancaster University)

Team: Andrew Barker (Lancaster University), Lucy Barnes (Open Book Publishers), Claire McGann (Lancaster University), Elaine Sykes (Lancaster University Library)

Work Package 2 ~ Open Book Collective

Lead: Joe Deville (Lancaster University)

Team: Francesca Corazza, Judith Fathallah, Izabella Penier, Kevin Sanders, Livy Snyder

Find out more: https://copim.pubpub.org/open-book-collective

Work Package 3 ~ Opening the Future Revenue Model

Lead: Tom Grady (Birkbeck, University of London)

Team: Kira Hopkins (Birkbeck, University of London)

Find out more: https://copim.pubpub.org/opening-the-future

Work Package 4 ~ Open Metadata & Dissemination (Thoth)

Leads: Rupert Gatti (Trinity College, Cambridge University, and Open Book Publishers) and Vincent van Gerven Oei (punctum books)

Team: Javier Arias (Open Book Publishers), Jordy Findanis (OAPEN), Ross Higman (Open Book Publishers), Hannah Hillen (Thoth Open Metadata), Brendan O'Connell (Open Book Publishers), Amanda Ramalho (Thoth Open Metadata / SciELO Books), Toby Steiner (Thoth Open Metadata)

Find out more: https://copim.pubpub.org/thoth

Work Package 5 ~ Accessibility

Lead: Rupert Gatti (Trinity College, Cambridge University, and Open Book Publishers)

Team: Javier Arias (Open Book Publishers), Ross Higman (Open Book Publishers), Hannah Hillen (Thoth Open Metadata), Amanda Ramalho (Thoth Open Metadata / SciELO Books), Toby Steiner (Thoth Open Metadata)

Find out more: https://copim.pubpub.org/accessibility

Work Package 6 ~ Experimental Publishing

Lead: Janneke Adema (Coventry University)

Team: Simon Bowie (Coventry University), Rebekka Kiesewetter (Coventry University), Julien McHardy (Mattering Press)

Find out more: https://copim.pubpub.org/experimental-publishing-group

Work Package 7 ~ Archiving & Digital Preservation

Leads: Gareth Cole (Loughborough University Library) and Rupert Gatti (Trinity College, Cambridge University, and Open Book Publishers)

Team:  Miranda Barnes (Loughborough University), Ian Cooke (British Library), Jenny Fry (Loughborough University), Ross Higman (Open Book Publishers), Giulia Rossi (British Library), Toby Steiner (Thoth Open Metadata), Paul Stokes (Jisc), Paul Wheatley (Digital Preservation Coalition)

Find out more: https://copim.pubpub.org/archiving-and-digital-preservation

Open Book Futures governance group and advisory board

Learn more about the project’s Governance Group and Advisory board, including a list of their members, on the following page: https://copim.pubpub.org/governance-project-management