Where are the new scholar-led open access presses & how can we support their emergence?

Slide from a panel session on the second day of the Copim Conference 2026, a hybrid event (26-27 February) focusing on the future of community-led open access books. Panel members:

• Lucy Barnes (chair)
• Julien McHardy
• Niki Rhyner
• Zoe Wake Hyde

Abstract: One of the major drivers of the initial Copim project and the subsequent OBF project was the ambition to build open infrastructures to break down the barriers that inhibit the activities of OA presses, with a particular focus on the challenges faced by small scholar-led publishers. The aims of this activity were twofold: to enable existing presses to publish OA books more easily and to a higher standard (particularly with regard to technical aspects such as dissemination, archiving, accessibility etc), and to help facilitate the emergence of *new* scholar-led presses. While we have seen a significant rise in the numbers of new institutional OA presses, we haven’t seen the same growth in independent scholar-led OA book publishing activity. Now we are coming to the end of six years of infrastructure-building, this panel will discuss the reasons for the lack of new scholar-led presses emerging and potential approaches to encourage and facilitate this.