Knowledge Unlatched (KU), the international initiative for Open Access (OA), is pleased to announce the launch of the ninth round of funding today, which has to date helped publish over 3,000 scholarly books and 50 journals OA in a wide range of HSS and STEM fields. This year’s pledging options include KU’s flagship collection well-known to librarians, KU Select Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS) Books, and several new collections developed in partnerships with renowned academic publishers and university presses.
KU continues the thematic approach to pledging in 2022, allowing libraries to pledge support for their preferred subject areas (e.g., History, Politics, Communications, Business, STEM). As in previous years, librarians from all over the world provided feedback and helped KU assess the relevance of the new collections, including over 260 subject experts on the KU Selection Committee.
Due to the very successful KU Focus Collection on Climate Change last year—which resulted in 25 books published OA instead of the 20 originally planned—and due to librarians’ interest in supporting more collections of this type, KU will offer two Focus Collections in 2022: Climate Change and Global Health. Further, to align the content with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Climate Change collection is complemented with research videos on Climate Action from Latest Thinking. KU’s new partnership with Emerald Publishing introduces a new book collection on Responsible Management and the SDGs.
“We are pleased to offer so many opportunities to invest in OA thanks to a variety of approaches and sustainable models,” says Dr. Sven Fund, KU’s Senior Director. “Being part of Wiley offers great additional opportunities to libraries and publishers working with KU, and the combined teams are thrilled to make them happen.”
To encourage researchers who have insufficient access to funding to take advantage of the global reach that OA affords, KU is launching a new “KU Open Opportunities” model in 2022. Developed in partnership with the University of Michigan Press, this collection of books will consist of at least 30% of the content by researchers who do not have access to sufficient publications funds. The model will be expanded over time if this year’s pilot proves to be successful.
KU continues to work with its established publishing partners over many years, including Berghahn, EDP Sciences, HAU Books, IWAP, Luminos by the University of California Press, Pluto Journals, Routledge, transcript and wbv Media.
Libraries may pledge support for this year’s OA offerings through November 2022. More information on the 2022 initiatives is available on KU’s website, www.knowledgeunlatched.org.
