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E Press Overview

Table of Contents

1. What is scholarly publishing?
   1.1 The decline in university presses
   1.2 Changes in scholarly communication
   1.3 A way forward for scholarly publishing
2. What is ANU E Press?
   2.1 ANU E Press as innovator
   2.2 The components of ANU E Press
   2.3 The purpose of ANU E Press
   2.4 The features and infrastructure of ANU E Press
   2.5 The role of an ANU E Press brand
   2.6 The resources of ANU E Press
3. Why use ANU E Press?
4. What services does ANU E Press provide?
5. How to publish with ANU E Press
6. The guarantee of quality
7. Any costs involved?
8. Copyright and intellectual property

1. What is scholarly publishing?

1.1 The decline in university presses

The decline of the traditional university press has been well documented in the western world. Traditional presses lose money, are subsidised by their university, or generate revenue from non-scholarly publishing.

The sales of scholarly material in monograph form have declined. Even in the international market, the sales of social science and humanities monographs have generally fallen below an economically sustainable level. In Australia the situation has been exacerbated by the lack of a global market for most Australian material and a decline in the number of outlets for scholarly monographs. The few remaining academic presses face a difficult future.

1.2 Changes in scholarly communication

Over the next decade, a significant challenge for research universities will be to influence and facilitate the development of a financially sustainable model for the communication of scholarly research output. Such a model will need to address issues of the following kind:

• the increasing volume and rising costs of traditional scholarly communication
  
• the current economic and organisational barriers to entry into an alternative digital environment
  
• the need to provide reliable quality assurance mechanisms
  
• the need to ensure efficient dissemination among peers, with opportunity for review and commentary
  
• the effective management of intellectual property rights

1.3 A way forward for scholarly publishing

To meet this challenge, The Australian National University established ANU E Press in early 2003. ANU E Press seeks to provide, in a digital environment, an effective mechanism for the communication of scholarly research conducted within the University and builds upon the existing services of the Division of Information.

2. What is ANU E Press?

2.1 ANU E Press as innovator

ANU E Press stimulates and facilitates innovation in scholarly communication in support of research and teaching.

The Division of Information at ANU hosts ANU E Press. In partnership with scholars, academic publishers, librarians, and information technologists, ANU E Press works to explore and enable new modes of scholarly publication within a digital repository environment, including:

• the production of electronic editions of academic monographs of interest to both scholarly and general-interest readers
  
• web-based dissemination of digitally reformatted publications
  
• support for presentation and dissemination of interactive publications and teaching materials
  
• the development of technologies that enhance peer review while accelerating dissemination of scholarly publication

2.2 The components of ANU E Press

ANU E Press provides an electronically delivered scholarly list accessible on the web or downloaded and printed on demand.

Overseeing the development of ANU E Press are a Steering Group with membership drawn from the Division of Information and an extended Steering Committee whose membership includes representatives from major stakeholders. The Steering Group (DoI) and Steering Committee determine the broad strategic and policy directions taken by ANU E Press, monitor progress, and champion the project within the University.

2.3 The purpose of ANU E Press

ANU E Press collects, disseminates, brands and makes available on a global electronic basis selected scholarly research undertaken at ANU.

ANU E Press facilitates communication among scholars, especially with respect to:

• publication of research results
  
• collection and capturing of scholarly dialogues
  
• creation of archival records

2.4 The features and infrastructure of ANU E Press

ANU E Press supports the following:

• open e-publication
  
• institution-based repositories with appropriate listings and metadata/discovery mechanisms
  
• a centralised repository
  
• a low-cost, common-good funding model
  
• moderation/peer review
  
• copyright preserved by creators
  
• facilities for access to and transfer of electronic information, for example, a print-on-demand facility

ANU E Press is housed in the W.K. Hancock Building #43 on ANU campus. Managing the day-to-day operations of ANU E Press is a small team, which consists of the following members:

• Mrs Lorena Kanellopoulos (Manager)
  
• Miss Teresa Prowse (Desktop Publisher)
  
• Dr Duncan Beard (Information Editor)

2.5 The role of an ANU E Press brand

• moderated archival publications
  
• thematic series
  
• global distribution
  
• recognition and credentialing

2.6 The resources of ANU E Press

• a maintained server
  
• an online catalogue of all ANU publications
  
• open archive facilities
  
• web pages/FAQs, Help/QA services, particularly for copyright and publisher licence assistance
  
• editorial services
  
• marketing and promotion
  
• print-on-demand facility

3. Why use ANU E Press?

The principal focus of ANU E Press is to make available the intellectual output of the academic and postgraduate communities of ANU. The premise for distribution is that material posted on ANU E Press web site will be suitably credentialed, indexed and marketed, and online content will be available free of charge.

ANU E Press endeavours to:

• promote ANU's research activities and intellectual capital in ways that enhance the University's brand
  
• foster research and instruction by providing a more direct link between the writers and readers of scholarly material
  
• lead scholarly innovations in publishing
  
• provide an alternative means for the production and dissemination of scholarship
  
• reduce costs of and barriers to access to scholarly information
  
• promote electronic journals in underserved and emerging disciplines
  
• contribute to the development of comprehensive repositories promoting 'one-stop shopping' for researchers

4. What services does ANU E Press provide?

ANU E Press manages the submission, manuscript tracking, refereeing and publishing in electronic format of scholarly information, with material available through the Internet. ANU E Press is allied to a networked print-on-demand (POD) facility.

ANU E Press endeavours to:

• provide standardised publishing processes via a generic set of publishing workflows
  
• manage the relationship between publisher and author from proposal and contract, through editorial workflow to finished electronic product
  
• accept content in its original format (this must comply with the format outlined in the Authors Guidelines for Electronic Submissions) via a simple Internet interface
  
• provide for minimal conversion through support for publishing and viewing content in a number of file formats
  
• enable content indexing in the form of subject headings and metadata
  
• provide system administration tools including:
  
  • security and access control
    
  • workflow creation and management
    
  • other administrative functions.

5. How to publish with ANU E Press

Before you submit your manuscript you will need to email ANU E Press office (anuepress@anu.edu.au), requesting a copy of ANU E Press proposal form. The completed form should be sent electronically to the E Press mailbox: anuepress@anu.edu.au

Your proposal will be emailed to the relevant disciplinary Editorial Committee, which will make contact with you to let you know if they wish to receive the whole manuscript to commence the peer-review process.

Once your manuscript has been accepted for publication by the relevant Editorial Committee, ANU E Press will commence the production cycle.
For a full set of instructions on how to submit a manuscript, please consult the Author Guidelines for Electronic Submissions.

6. The guarantee of quality

For academic publishers, peer review and branding are critical issues. At ANU E Press provision is made for editing and proofreading to avoid problems such as plagiarism, libel and inconsistency. Furthermore ANU E Press titles are reviewed by leading scholars in their respective areas. Refereeing is provided in the context of electronic document tracking.

ANU E Press has as its focus the following concerns:

• quality of content
  
• quality of accessibility
  
• quality of editorial processes
  
• quality of presentation
  
• user-friendly web site
  
• financial control at all stages of production
  
• sustainability
  
• stability
  
• long-term access and preservation.

In addition the E Press Advisory Board has the authority to accept or decline a book proposal.

7. Any costs involved?

ANU and ANU E Press carry the cost of producing a select range of monographs online and in print. The copy-editing and indexing costs are covered either by the Editorial Committee or the author/editor of the publication.

As a reader, you are free to download any of the titles in PDF, HTML, or formatted for handheld device format. If you wish to purchase a print or CD-Rom version of any of the titles, charges apply.

8. Copyright and intellectual property

Copyright is a protection of a person's expression of a creative skill or idea. The idea itself is not protected, rather the form in which it is expressed, for example, a musical composition, a book, a drawing, or a photograph.

The Division of Information is responsible for the communication of copyright information to ANU. ANU E Press supports and works within this copyright framework. More information on the following areas of copyright can be found at http://information.anu.edu.au/copyright

• copyright basics
  
• complying with copyright requirements
  
• contacts for further information
  
• printable copies of notices and warnings
  
• your rights as a copyright owner
  
• current copyright issues
  
• available training sessions
  
• copyright websites

If you require any further advice, you can contact the legal office via email at Legal.Office@anu.edu.au or by telephone on (02) 6125 8489.