University of California Press’ Open Access journals program—a.k.a. “Collabra”—is reaching out to you, the academic community, with a “call for journals.”
- Are you a scholarly society, or other community or collective, with an OA journal idea that you would like to develop with UC Press?
- Are you involved with an OA journal that you are in a position to consider publishing with UC Press?
- Are you an editor, or on an editorial board, considering starting a new OA journal?
Then please consider reaching out to us. Our aim is to facilitate, and not control, and we acknowledge the primary importance of the scholarly community in the value of a journal. Contact: Dan Morgan, Publisher, UC Press, at dmorgan@ucpress.edu.
Background to the program
As of January 2017, University of California Press is the publisher of two Open Access journals—Collabra: Psychology (which we launched) and Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene (which transferred to us from BioOne).
The origin of Collabra: Psychology was a megajournal called Collabra, which was intended to cover multiple disciplines. It created a new, fair, efficient business model that allows editors and reviewers to have a say in how the value created by a journal is shared. Elementa now adopts this business model too.
Collabra’s transition to Collabra: Psychology, a journal devoted to psychology, was not an exit from other fields but a focus on a specific community in which it gained great traction. When the opportunity to publish Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene came along, we realized the best way forward for our OA efforts would be to work with specific communities on specific journals.
And now our intention is to have “Collabra” be an overarching brand for more Open Access journals—which will all feature the core values of:
- Fairness in pricing and business practice, with revenue sharing models if appropriate
- Scientific and scholarly rigor
- Transparency and openness, in data, methods, interests—defined by each community
- Putting the academic community first—which community primarily creates and maintains a journal’s profile and identify
We look forward to working with you! Please reach out to Dan Morgan, Publisher, UC Press, at dmorgan@ucpress.edu.
