Born Open: Rethinking Prestige in Scholarly Book Publishing
What does “prestige” really mean in scholarly book publishing, and who gets to define it? How does the value placed on the “prestige” of a press impact new publishers, many of which are forming in order to publish open access work?
For many researchers, authors, libraries, and funders, prestige is still closely tied to long‑established academic presses. These presses often carry decades, sometimes centuries, of reputation. Yet alongside them exists a growing group of born open access (OA) book publishers. These presses were founded with openness at their core, publishing rigorously peer-reviewed, carefully edited and produced books that are fully open access from the outset rather than transitioning from closed models later on. However, they lack the prestigious reputations of their more established counterparts. How do they balance their newness and fresh perspectives with the challenge of building a reputation in academic publishing?
Our new Born Open blog series shines a spotlight on these presses, their work, and their role in reshaping how we think about quality, impact, and prestige in scholarly book publishing.
What are born OA book publishers?
Born‑open publishers are usually smaller and newer than traditional academic publishers. They often operate with lean teams, publish a small number of titles each year, and experiment with different governance, funding, editorial and production models. What they all share is a commitment to open access, and some of them are working on funding models that do not rely on high author fees, while maintaining rigorous publishing standards.
Despite this, they are often perceived as having less prestige in academic evaluation systems and are at risk of being seen as predatory. For authors navigating hiring, promotion, or research assessment processes, this perception can shape where and how they choose to publish. This type of prestige can often be a little less visible than in the journal world, where it is quantified as the journal impact factor or JIF – but it is no less powerful an influence on author behaviour.
This blog series asks what we can learn from presses that have built quality, trust, and reach outside traditional hierarchies.
What this blog series will explore
The Born Open series will feature posts from OA book publishers based in different countries and with different models. Each contribution will introduce a press and reflect on how it operates within, or pushes back against, the academic prestige economy.
Across the series, readers can expect insights into:
- Why presses chose to publish OA books from the very beginning
- How smaller or newer presses ensure high editorial and production quality
- How ideas of prestige affect publishers and their authors in practice
- What success and impact look like beyond traditional markers such as brand recognition
- How authors experience publishing with born‑open presses, in their own words.
Together, these perspectives offer a more nuanced picture of scholarly book publishing today, one that recognises both excellence and experimentation.
As with our Around the World blog series, contributors have the option to write in the language they use most in their professional work in recognition of the global diversity of OA book publishing. If contributors choose to do this, the post will also be made available in English, either through translation provided by the contributor or with support from tools such as DeepL. This approach aims to lower barriers to participation and widen access for readers across regions and linguistic communities.
Why we should address prestige
For authors, choosing where to publish a book can shape career trajectories. For libraries and funders, decisions about support and recognition influence which models thrive. For readers, publishing choices affect what research is accessible and to whom.
By foregrounding born‑open presses, this series highlights publishing practices that prioritise openness, while questioning inherited assumptions about prestige. It invites the scholarly community to consider whether long‑term value lies not only in established names, but also in innovative models that align with open scholarship.
Call for contributions
If you are a born OA publisher and would like to contribute to this blog series, we warmly invite you to contact us to express your interest. We are especially interested in hearing from presses of different sizes, disciplines, and geographical contexts.
We look forward to exploring what it truly means to be born open within the scholarly book publishing ecosystem, starting with posts from UN@ Éditions, MorePress, and the University of Johannesburg Press (and more to come!).