Publishing Beyond the Market argues that the move to open access should focus less on the free accessibility of research outputs and more on who controls the publications and infrastructures for scholarly communication. By deploying theoretical literature on science and technology studies, care ethics, and the commons, the book critically interrogates open access and re-imagines a more ethical future for researcher-led publishing. A case study of Plan S—the multi-funder European policy for OA publishing—explores its tendency to rehearse all the failures of commercialisation. Through critical engagement with the open access landscape, the book reveals the shortcomings of market-centric and policy-based approaches to open access book and journal publishing, particularly their tendency to reinforce conservatism, commercialism, and private control of publishing.

Going forward, Publishing Beyond the Market explores the importance of collectivity and democratic governance within the transition to open access publishing. It suggests that developing a commons-based, scholar-led publishing landscape through a series of presses that are each managed by working academics could offer a productive counterpoint to marketised systems of open access and subscription publishing. In weaving themselves together in order to “scale small” these publishing initiatives would act as a counter-hegemonic project based on mutual reliance and care. By illustrating how these projects build towards a commons-based publishing future, and how they may complement other approaches to publishing within university presses and libraries, the book culminates in an argument for the infrastructures, policies, and forms of governance needed to nurture such a collective vision.

Samuel A. Moore is the Scholarly Communication Specialist at Cambridge University Libraries  and a College Research Associate at King's College Cambridge.

“The breadth of analysis in Publishing Beyond the Market is first-rate with a range of expertise that few authors could offer on the subject. Moore’s ability to go beyond a mere critique of the problem of market failure and instead propose and elaborate both theoretical and pragmatic alternatives makes this work a particularly incisive contribution.”— John Maxwell, Simon Fraser University

“Publishing Beyond the Market offers a rich and well-theorized understanding of the role of sociality in the socio-technical systems of scholarly communication and is poised to make an enormous contribution to contemporary discussions of the future of scholarly publication.”— Kathleen Fitzpatrick, Michigan State University