University Press Week Blog Tour: How We #StepUP

This Week is University Press Week—an annual celebration of the global impact of the university press publishing community. This year’s theme is #StepUP and today we’re joining the UP Week Blog tour to reflect on how we #StepUP by shining a spotlight on projects that exemplify how the #StepUP theme intersects with our mission as a press.

When the theme of today’s blog tour was announced as “What does your Press do to #StepUP?” one of our newest initiatives—Partnership for Open Publishing (POP)—immediately came to mind.

What is POP?

Connected to our larger mission of expanding open access (OA) publishing and increasing the broad dissemination of scholarship, POP is a publishing model, set of tools, and service offering developed to advance OA journal publishing across the statewide UNC System. Offering both an editorial and production tool powered by Janeway and a content hosting and display platform built on Meru, the program features customizable layouts, issue- and article-level metadata, and item-level usage metrics. Libraries can use the whole platform or just the hosting and display layer, which can harvest existing content from multiple systems including OJS, DSpace, and Janeway. POP is also a way for journals to reach a wider audience by increasing its visibility both within and outside the UNC System. It also offers enhanced brand recognition for campuses by featuring the local campus as publisher, ensuring that readers associate the journals with its host campus.

How is POP Funded?

The program grew out of the Next Generation Library Publishing initiative, which was supported by grants from the Arcadia Fund and The Provost’s office of UNC Chapel Hill has committed to two years of funding for a project manager housed at UNC Press to support the development of both POP and a related OA initiative called the ARC Alliance that is being developed by faculty at UNC CH. 

When Will POP be Available?

The program is currently in a pilot program, with an expected roll-out in 2025. We’re currently working with UNC Greensboro University Libraries and the UNC Asheville Ramsey Library to support the publication of OA journals based at their respective institutions. There’s still time to enjoy the benefits of being a POP pilot partner and those that are interested can find out more information on who to contact on our webpage.

We’re extremely excited to be launching this new initiative and to further our commitment to the broad dissemination of scholarship through OA. You can visit our about page to read more about our OA Vision and Policy and learn about other programs we have and are participating in.