Knowledge Unlatched develops KU Open Analytics together with four founding partners

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Knowledge Unlatched develops KU Open Analytics together with four founding partners


Berlin, 17. Juli 2018. Together with Cornell University Press (CUP), Edinburgh University Press (EUP), Liverpool University Press (LUP) and University of Michigan Press (UMP), Knowledge Unlatched (KU) will be further developing its usage reporting and analytics tool. The new service called KU Open Analytics will provide publishers and libraries with a single reporting tool for aggregate Open Access (OA) eBooks usage.

“In partnership with the founding partners, a number of additional OA eBook platforms will be integrated. The partners will also contribute to the future development of KU Open Analytics’ new features, allowing for a seamless reporting experience to stakeholders towards the usage of their OA books” says Max Mosterd, Head of Operations and Analytics at KU.

“Measuring sales (and therefore impact) of monographs, both in print and digitally, is relatively straightforward. The same cannot be said for OA: building a picture of the ways in which OA monographs are accessed is a vital element in developing our understanding of this increasingly important area of academic publishing”, says Nicola Ramsey, Head of Editorial (Books) at EUP. Charles Watkinson, Director of UMP, added "without this sort of aggregation tool for robust usage stats from multiple platforms, book publishers can neither measure nor tell the story of the OA advantage to their authors and funding partners".

Dean Smith, Director of CUP, mentions that “this is a major step towards developing a level playing field for communicating OA monograph usage. We are pleased to collaborate with KU and are committed to innovation in this area. I say this as I am currently trying to reconcile OA usage from four major platforms.” Anthony Cond, Director of LUP, concludes that “research funders and policy makers, especially those in the UK, are clear on the long-term importance of OA for humanities books. KU Open Analytics provides an important example of collaboration between a group of forward thinking university presses and KU to enhance our understanding of OA as a pathway to impact for the monograph.”

The new service will be further developed over the summer and made available in fall 2018. More information can be found on here

About Knowledge Unlatched (KU): Knowledge Unlatched (KU) offers free access to scholarly content for every reader across the world. Our online platform provides libraries worldwide with a central place to support Open Access models from leading publishing houses and new OA initiatives.


Contact:

Knowledge Unlatched:

Philipp Hess

philipp@knowledgeunlatched.org