This week, October 23-29, 2017, marked the tenth annual Open Access Week. The articles collected this week include information on open education, Open Access textbook publishing, starting an Open Access journal, requirements for a sustainable knowledge commons, the editor’s role in a changing publishing industry, and equity and inclusion in scholarly publishing. As this month comes to a close, we are also preparing for Academic Writing Month (AcWriMo) starting next week. Be sure to check out the last link with information about AcWriMo events co-hosted by TAA next month. According to Amit Kalantri, “The most difficult thing about writing; is writing the first line.” This week, start something. Write that first line.

Open education, open questions

The use of open practices by learners and educators is complex, personal, and contextual; it is also continually negotiated. Higher education institutions require collaborative and critical approaches to openness in order to support faculty, students, and learning in an increasingly complex higher education environment.

Publishing your book OA: An author’s perspective with Helen Gilbert

An interview by Alison Welsby, Editorial Director with Professor Helen Gilbert from Royal Holloway University of London, on the publication of the Open Access work, In the Balance: Indigeneity, Performance, Globalization.

Free eBook – The Open Access journal starter kit

Want to learn what it takes to launch a successful open access journal? This OA Journal Starter Kit covers all the information you need to get an OA journal off the ground, cultivate a readership, and attract submissions and reviewers during the first year of publication.

Beyond Open Access: Five prerequisites for a sustainable knowledge commons

The Confederation of Open Access Repositories (COAR) provides an infographic resource sharing five prerequisites for a sustainable knowledge commons.

Openness and the decline of the textbook author

The emerging model of openly licensed educational content makes pedagogical as well as financial sense for today’s higher education market, fostering inclusivity and knocking down the wall between writer and reader, writes Brian Jacobs.

What is an editor’s role in a changing publishing industry?

What Editors Do covers three phrases of editing: acquisition (finding the book), the editing process, and publication (bringing the book to the reader). Twenty-seven people in book publishing—representing publishers large and small, and encompassing trade, textbook, academic, and children’s publishing—discuss the function of editors and reflect just how much it matters to writers and readers everywhere.

“Essential and existential”: The work of equity and inclusion in scholarly publishing

Recent Society for Scholarly Publishing panels in Boston and in Durham, NC, addressed equity and inclusion in scholarly publishing and best practices for organizations seeking to recruit, retain, and support people of color. The panelists shared their experiences with inclusion initiatives as recruiters or as employees and reported on progress and obstacles. They considered what has worked and what has not, and what more can be done to recruit a more diverse workforce in publishing.

#AcWriMo Tweetchats coming soon

SAGE Methodspace and the Textbook & Academic Authors Association are co-hosting a series of Tweetchats for exchange of ideas and resources about academic writing and publishing during the Academic Writing Month of November.

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