Publishing News | Research
Remembering Chris Fowler
We are sad to share the news of the death of Chris Fowler (1956 – 2022) from the Library at Oxford Brookes.
Over the years Chris helped numerous staff and students in Publishing, offering invaluable advice and assistance whether around research skills or the relevant books and resources available in the library. She loved the special collections and we are fortunate to have a good variety of publishing-related archives and collections, including the Booker Archive and the Steve Hare, Peter Stockham and Jane Doe collections. She will be much missed.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 01 Jul 2022 around 1pm
Filed Under Research | Postgraduate | Publishing
By the Book7 - programme published
We are delighted to publish the programme for By the Book7 - Publishing in the 21st Century, which is taking place in Paris on the 20th and 21st June 2022. The full conference programme is now available and we are delighted to welcome as keynote speakers Naomi Bacon and John Thompson. Naomi is Founder and Director of Tandem Collective; John is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of Cambridge and author of the recently published Book Wars.
Visit the conference page for more details including the programme.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 08 Jun 2022 around 9am
Filed Under Research | Events | Postgraduate | Publishing
Is This a Book? now published
This new book from OICP Director Angus Phillips is now published by Cambridge University Press. Co-authored with Miha Kovač, the book is available for a short period as a free download.
This is a book about the book.
Is this a book? is a question of wide appeal and interest. With the arrival of ebooks, digital narratives and audiobooks, the time is right for a fresh discussion of what is a book. Older definitions that rely solely on print no longer work, and as the boundaries of the book have been broken down, this volume offers a fresh and lively discussion of the form and purpose of the book. How does the audiobook fit into the book family? How is the role of reading changing in the light of digital developments? Does the book still deserve a privileged place in society? The authors present a dynamic model of the book and how it lives on in today's competitive media environment.
For more details visit the CUP page here
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 18 May 2022 around 11am
Filed Under Research | Oxford Publishing & Digital Media | Postgraduate | Publishing
Research on the publishing of academic monographs
Now published in Publishing Research Quarterly is a paper by OICP researchers Philip Shaw, Angus Phillips and Maria Bajo Gutiérrez on the health of the academic monograph: 'The Death of the Monograph?'
A survey of English language academic publishers in the UK, Europe and North America was undertaken in 2021. The objective was to gather data on the current landscape of academic monograph publishing in the arts, humanities, and social sciences and to identify trends. Respondents were asked about their monograph publishing activities, sales, distribution, and about the future direction of their programmes. The report offers independent analysis of publisher information that may be helpful in informing the debate among stakeholders as to the future of the publication of long-form research in the arts, humanities and social sciences. The results offer key insights into the growth in output of titles, the level of print sales, the move towards open access, usage of monographs, and their pricing.
You can view the paper here
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 06 May 2022 around 8am
Filed Under Research | Postgraduate | Publishing
Xiaolu Guo at the Oxford Literary Festival
On 30 March 2022 the award-winning Chinese-British novelist and film-maker Xiaolu Guo was interviewed at the Oxford Literary Festival by Angus Phillips, Director of the Oxford International Centre for Publishing.
The event took place in the Weston Library Lecture Theatre at the Bodleian Library and was attended by 50 people. The interview provided insights into Xiaolu Guo’s life and works, as well as examining some of the key themes in her books, such as love, language and identity.
A key part of the conversation focused on her latest novel A Lover’s Discourse (2020). A Chinese woman comes to post-Brexit London to start over: isolated and lonely in a Britain increasingly hostile to foreigners, she meets a landscape architect and the two begin to build their future together. The novel plays with language and the cultural differences that the narrator encounters as she settles into her new life, and the lovers must navigate their differences and their romance. The author read an extract from the book which considers the difference between authenticity and imitation through looking at a village in Shenzhen, where there is a cottage industry reproducing famous artworks for western consumers.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 13 Apr 2022 around 3pm
Filed Under Research | In Conversation with OICP | Events | Postgraduate | Publishing
Lucy Derges, Policy & Research Manager at STM shares the 2021 STM Report
The latest STM publication on the state of scientific and scholarly publishing globally is now available. The 2021 STM Report was compiled by Lucy Derges, MA Publishing distance learning student, who joined STM (The International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers) as Policy & Research Manager at the beginning of 2021. Compiling this essential industry report was one of Derges' first tasks of her new job and highlights a key benefit of the OICP distance learning degree: the flexibility to study alongside full-time employment and the application of learning in practice.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 15 Nov 2021 around 2pm
Filed Under Research | Publishing
Podcasting article in The Bookseller
For an article in The Bookseller magazine on industry podcasts, Caroline Carpenter interviewed Angus Phillips from OICP and one of our alumni, Flavia Marcocci.
The team at the Oxford International Centre for Publishing (OICP) started recording audio content from interesting visitors and industry speakers more than a decade ago. Angus Phillips, director of the OICP, says: 'We aim to keep current with the industry and the latest developments. The podcast is part of our research and also supports our teaching. There is no strict format; the content is varied across topics and industry sectors.' Guests are selected to offer insight into the industry and the latest trends.
A former OICP student, Flavia Marcocci, began researching and producing her own podcast as her major project for her MA in Digital Publishing in 2018. Marcocci, who is platform manager at AI search firm Yext and previously worked at Polity and DK, launched Publishing Insight because 'at the time, there weren’t many career podcasts focusing on the publishing industry and the roles that comprise a publishing house'.
You can read the full article here
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 12 Nov 2021 around 2pm
Filed Under Research | Postgraduate | Publishing
Monograph publishing - OICP report now published
The results are published of research carried out by the Oxford International Centre for Publishing into the publishing of monographs or research-based books. A survey of English language academic publishers in the UK, Europe and North America was undertaken in 2021. The objective was to gather data on the current landscape of academic monograph publishing in the arts, humanities, and social sciences and to identify trends. Respondents were asked about their monograph publishing activities, sales, distribution, and about the future direction of their programmes. The report offers independent analysis of publisher information that may be helpful in informing the debate among stakeholders as to the future of the publication of long-form research in the arts, humanities and social sciences. The results offer key insights into the growth in output of titles, the level of print sales, the move towards open access, usage of monographs, and their pricing.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 14 Oct 2021 around 1pm
Filed Under Research | Oxford Publishing & Digital Media | Postgraduate | Publishing | Oxford Centre for Publishing Consultancy and Research
Samantha Harman @PubOxford appears in Media Quotes of the Year 2020
Samantha Harman of OICP @Samantha_editor was quoted alongside fellow journalists Alan Rusbridger and Geordie Greig in InPublishing’s selection of the Media Quotes of the Year.
Writing about the online abuse of journalists, she said: ‘We’ve seen a toxic rhetoric emerge over the last couple of years that all journalists are “scum” and that it’s acceptable to hide behind the internet to say whatever you want to them. It reached a boiling point this year during coverage of the Black Lives Matter movement, with reporters having to deal with abhorrent, disgusting and racist comments on stories.’
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 22 Dec 2020 around 12pm
Filed Under Research | Postgraduate | Publishing
Caroline Davis @PubOxford publishes new book
Dr Caroline Davis from OICP has published a new book with Cambridge University Press in their Elements series: African Literature and the CIA.
During the period of decolonization in Africa, the CIA subsidized a number of African authors, editors and publishers as part of its anti-communist covert propaganda strategy. Her new book unravels the hidden networks and associations underpinning African literary publishing in the 1960s; it investigates the success of the CIA in disrupting and infiltrating African literary magazines and publishing firms, and determines the extent to which new circuits of cultural and literary power emerged. Based on new archival evidence relating to the Transcription Centre, The Classic and The New African, it includes case studies of Wole Soyinka, Nat Nakasa and Bessie Head, which assess how their literary careers were influenced by these transnational literary institutions, and their response to these interventions.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 22 Dec 2020 around 12pm
Filed Under Research | Postgraduate | Publishing