🚨 SAVE THE DATE!
Copim’s Experimental Publishing Group is pleased to announce a two-day online conference on Experimental Publishing Practices
Join us next month to celebrate 3 fantastic experimental book pilot projects!
📆 8–9 April 2026
👉 buff.ly/5J80AJO
This panel on experimental publishing futures which I co-chaired with @openreflections.bsky.social is now available to view in its entirety on the Internet Archive. #CopimConference archive.org/details/copi...
Very exciting to see the full rogramme of the London #OpenScience & Scholarship Festival 2026! #LDNOpenFest26 Led by fantastic team of @uclopenscience.bsky.social Booking is now open. Check the sessions out and note that Tue. 21 April is in-person at the @fci-library.bsky.social 🎊
Two people standing at a lectern at Oxford University delivering a brilliant talk
Brilliant discussion rethinking governance in publishing and research from @kirahopkins.bsky.social and @kjsanders.bsky.social at The Oxford Forum of Open Scholarship #OXFOS26
A crowd of delegates, arranged in a rough semi circle, looking up at the camera, some cheering
Two delegates talking to each other during a coffee break, both smiling, other delegates in the background
Caroline Ball speaking, holding a lapel mic, with Fatimah Abduldayan, Martina Benz, and Sarah Thompson sitting alongside, with Martina looking up and back at a screen off camera
View from the back of a tiered lecture theatre, showing around 100 delegates seated in rows looking at a screen at the front, showing a remote delegate speaking, with four other speakers sitting below and to the left
1/ We did it.. the first ever Copim community conference ... done! Approx 250 people joining on and offline, over two days, with delegates representing every continent and 49 countries. Inevitably our discussions centred on the futures of #OAbooks...
And if you're interested in following the work of Copim post project end, join our new JiscMail list
👉 buff.ly/SxZEPm7
Photo by Philip Oroni on Unsplash
That's a wrap! Thanks so much to all who came to the #CopimConference, to our fantastic speakers & our wonderful hosts at Loughborough University London campus.
We'll release recordings soon & we look forward to taking the energy & ideas from conference into the coming months! 🔜
Thinking some more about the long history of scholar-led presses, I was reminded of an H5P timeline, which was looking into the emergence of scholar-led initiatives particularly in the field of #MediaStudies ... might be of interest to #CopimConference participants?
doi.org/10.59350/bwq...
I owe a huge amount to @copim.bsky.social and the many people connected to it. The #CopimConference was a really nice way to celebrate the project's amazing community-led activity in open access books. Looking forward to seeing what you all do next...
A quote from Jesse Shera about the moral imperatives on librarians.
Siddarth Soni starting his keynote with a Jesse Shera quote contextualising his idea of activist librarians and radical librarianship. #CopimConference
Call for applications!
We are looking for a small press to take up a temporary residency at UCL!
£5,000 to spend flexibly, an opportunity to work with outstanding collections & collaborate with brilliant students and staff!
blogs.ucl.ac.uk/special-coll...
"Every time I hear it I want to say love, love is our business model: Precarious, productive, scary, unpredictable, high stake." - McHardy, 2017 #CopimConference
Save the date!
Practicing Experimental Books: Celebrating Copim’s Book Pilots @openreflections.bsky.social
👉 copim.pub/save-the-dat...
#CopimConference
Next up "Experimental publishing futures" with Janneke Adema @openreflections.bsky.social & Simon Bowie @simonxix.com chairing, and John Atkinson, Emma Gallon @emmagallon.bsky.social & Paul Stevens on the panel #CopimConference
Example book projects that used experimental publishing:
Reframing Failure in Digital Scholarship doi.org/10.63674/yra...
Living with Machines: Computational Histories of the Age of Industry uolpress.co.uk/book/living-...
#CopimConference
Digital screen on display at the Copim Conference showing the University of London Press logo and the title ‘Experimental Publishing Futures’
Our colleague @emmagallon.bsky.social is now presenting on our experimental and multimodal book publishing. #OpenAccess gives us room to rethink what a scholarly book can be. Excited to publish two enhanced OA editions this year using our instance of @manifoldscholar.bsky.social.
#CopimConference
Screen on display at the Copim conference showing new enhanced editions by the University of London Press
Our member @uolpress.bsky.social’s Publisher @emmagallon.bsky.social presenting at the #CopimConference on experimental publishing, with a number of enhanced projects available and forthcoming.
Slide from the University of London Press on display at the Copim Conference. Text says: Developments in experimental book publishing - three reflections 1) Experimental publishing is increasingly blurring the distinction between where the research project stops and the publication process begins. 2) Experimental publishing continues to be resource- and labour-intensive. 3) There's a reciprocal relationship between experimental publishing and positive (open) research cultures. Publishers as collaborators
The final note from our Publisher @emmagallon.bsky.social is for publishers to be collaborators.
#OpenAccess and experimental publishing can make a really positive contribution to (open) research cultures.
#CopimConference
Slide titled Our publishing experiments, with bulleted text that reads: - Experimentation an explicit part of UoL Press's publishing remit - Manifold platform - Example book projects: Reframing Failure in Digital Scholarship, Women Working in the Past, Living with Machines
1/ OBC publishers are innovating when it comes not only to #OpenAccess, but also to form & process. Emma Gallon @emmagallon.bsky.social from @uolpress.bsky.social talking at the #CopimConference about how the press is engaging in a range of #ExperimentalPublishing practices
Explore our blog series which documents the making of the Deep Maps: Blue Humanities pilot project
Deep Maps: Monographs ‘n’ Markdown
👉 copim.pubpub.org/pub/deep-map...
Deep Maps: experimenting with peer review
👉 copim.pubpub.org/pub/deep-map...
#CopimConference
Example of a publication that includes embedded media on Michigan’s Fulcrum publishing platform.
A shout out to Michigan University Press @uofmpress.bsky.social on their innovative experiment representing work in a way traditional publishing can’t do. I think that MUP’s director @charleswatkinson.bsky.social is watching this event online… #CopimConference
Screenshot of slide presented by Emma Gallon on her reflections on developments in experimental publishing, particularly on publishers as collaborators
Excellent overview of some of our work in experimental publishing @uolpress.bsky.social by our Publisher @emmagallon.bsky.social at #copimconference
‘Publishers as collaborators’ and experimental publishing as part of positive research culture 👏
@oipassoc.bsky.social @sas-news.bsky.social
John standing beneath a slide showing images from Deep Maps: Blue Humanities, with the title: How is experimental publishing changing scholarly publishing?
3/ Or there's @uniwestpress.bsky.social's forthcoming Deep Maps: Blue Humanities text, involving a collaboration with @jstor.bsky.social Labs and @copim.bsky.social, as presented by John Atkinson at #CopimConference
Slide on display at the Copim conference created by John Atkinson from the University of Westminster Press stating: How is experimental publishing changing scholarly publishing? Recognise (embrace?) the discomfort of relinquishing control, and the challenge of redelining what "quality" or "rigour" looks like when the format itself is evolving. Overall, encourages an openness to innovation and new forms of enquiry, especially in relation to interdisciplinary research.
Another great member press presentation from John Atkinson at @uniwestpress.bsky.social on how experimental publishing is changing scholarly publishing, raising important qs around peer review for new formats. Also referencing @livunipress.bsky.social
& @manifoldscholar.bsky.social
#CopimConference
Our very own @simonxix.com now co-chairing a panel about experimental publishing at the @copim.bsky.social conference, something we’re very keen to do more of at Edinburgh Diamond!
Great to hear what other publishers are doing in this area.
#CopimConference
What might stop authors from wanting to publish an experimental book?
@emmagallon.bsky.social says often it’s a widespread lack of awareness of what can be done. What are the possibilities for publishing your research in different ways? Publishers need to show ppl what’s possible.
#CopimConference
Obviously I’m biased, but that was an excellent panel on experimental publishing chaired by @openreflections.bsky.social and @simonxix.com featuring @pwhstevens.bsky.social from BUP and fellow @oipassoc.bsky.social member John Atkinson from @uniwestpress.bsky.social 📚
#CopimConference
Schedule for Copim Conference
Back at #CopimConference and looking forward to co-chairing the panel on experimental book publishing later this morning. Ready your questions on publishing outwith the traditional monograph form.
I'll be heading down to England for #CopimConference later this week where I'll be co-chairing a panel on experimental books but also having lots of discussions about community-owned open access publishing with people doing the work. Looking forward to seeing old colleagues and meeting new people.
It should have been obvious, but I didn't realise that the best thing about publishing a book would be when someone reads and critically engages with the work and then builds on it. Thanks to the authors!
