LSE Press Joins the Open Book Collective

We are delighted to welcome the LSE Press as a member of the Open Book Collective!

LSE Press is a non-profit Open Access publisher of monographs, edited collections, textbooks, and journals. As the London School of Economics and Political Science’s institutional publisher, LSE Press is committed to advancing knowledge for public benefit through publishing high-quality social science research that has the potential to influence academic debate, public policy and the broader conversation.  Since its launch in 2018, LSE Press has focused on creating broad, equitable access to research by embracing digital, open access publishing methods. The press supports authors in developing books and journals that align with LSE Press' mission to improve society by fostering an understanding of social, economic, and political challenges. This mission is reflected in its guiding principles: promoting rigorous social science research, enabling innovative publications, and ensuring free, global access to knowledge. 

LSE Press’s academic publications provide vital templates for making sense of geopolitically tumultuous times. Its publications exemplify this, through their Diamond open access publication model. These include Naila Kabeer’s People's Book Prize for non-fiction nominated Renegotiating Patriarchy: Gender, Agency and the Bangladesh Paradox (2024) and J. McKenzie Alexander’s The Open Society as an Enemy: A critique of how free societies turned against themselves (2024). LSE Press’ decision to join the Open Book Collective enables the wider community of librarians, open infrastructure services, and Diamond open access publishers to co-create a vibrant and sustainable for LSE Press’ long term future.

By joining the OBC, LSE Press strengthens its commitment to an open access future, fostering partnerships that prioritise bibliodiversity, fair funding models, and collective support over competition. The OBC envisions a diverse and sustainable future for open-access books, and member publishers like LSE Press are essential to achieving this goal. Through its collaborative structure, the OBC provides a trusted platform where libraries can support OA initiatives and where authors and readers can explore a wide range of accessible, high-quality content.

The OBC envisions the creation of a diverse and sustainable future for OA Books and publisher members are crucial to that. We believe in collectivism, non-competition, and the rejection of Book Processing Charges. The OBC unites a range of OA presses and publishing initiatives that fit our membership criteria, creating a trusted group of OA initiatives for libraries to support, and for authors and readers to explore. In this way, the OBC assists publishers in securing sustainable revenue streams to fund a fair and diverse future for OA books.

If you are a publisher working in line with our values and are interested in learning more and joining the OBC to strengthen the community of OA initiatives and access collective funding, feel free to contact our outreach team or apply directly.

If you are a library interested in finding out more about the Open Book Collective, get in touch with us at [email protected]. We would love to hear from you!

Libraries can support LSE Press via the Open Book Collective in the folllowing ways:

• By supporting LSE Press via one of our ‘Packages’: either the complete Open Book Collective Package or the University Press Package

• By supporting LSE Press directly

Banner Image: Photo by delfi de la Rua on Unsplash