The Open Book Collective is delighted to announce that we have awarded funding to the first three recipients of our Collective Development Fund. In our last post, we introduced the first project we have funded. We now introduce the second project that was successful in our 2024 round, with the third to be announced shortly.

Project 2: Enhancing Open Access Book Publishing at Chinhoyi University of Technology (CUT) Library

Host organisation: Chinhoyi University of Technology (CUT)

Led by: Dr. Josiline Chigwada, University of South Africa, South Africa (https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0964-3582)

Country: Zimbabwe

Award: £15,000

In Zimbabwe, there is currently no publishing house for open access e-books. CUT Library has a strategic goal of fostering equitable access to academic knowledge by establishing an open access book publishing initiative as a way of promoting social justice and inclusion. Utilizing Open Monograph Press (OMP), this project will establish a sustainable infrastructure for open access book publishing at CUT, provide capacity-building workshops for the authors and editors on open access publishing practices, publish a series of high-quality open access books across diverse disciplines, and develop promotional strategies to increase the visibility and impact of open access publishing in Zimbabwe.

Project activities will include building the website for the open access book publishing initiative; training of the CUT Library scholarly team in the use of OMP at the University of Cape Town; training of peer reviewers on the use of OMP; and finally solicitation and review of book proposals.

In addition to this infrastructure and the books themselves, project outcomes will include:

• increased awareness and adoption of open access publishing practices among scholars, expanded access to academic knowledge for researchers, students, and the public,

• enhanced reputation, and visibility of CUT Library as a leading advocate for OA initiatives,

• facilitation of collaboration and knowledge exchange within the global academic community.

In keeping with the OBC’s key values, we are particularly excited to support the production of ebooks in local and regional languages spoken in Zimbabwe and Africa. CUT is also committed to the support of women in African scholarship, by implementing specific outreach and supporting programs for women scholars to encourage their participation in open access publishing.

Josiline and her collaborators will be providing updates and reports on this critical work here on the OBC blog. We will introduce our third awardee shortly.