Publishers for Development

The ACU established Publishers for Development in 2008, in partnership with the International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications (INASP). The difficulties that researchers encounter either in accessing journals and other publications, or in getting their research published are a common theme of many of our interactions with members. Publishers play an important part in the international research environment, and have a key role to play in ensuring that Southern research is better represented in academic debates.

Publishers for Development brings the academic publishing community together, in order to highlight the particular needs of Southern higher education and research institutions and to help them to understand the constraints these institutions face when they determine subscription and publishing models, particularly in terms of affordable and sustainable pricing.

With more and more research being accessed online, and with many Southern users having limited online access or slow connections, the need to take low-bandwidth users into account when developing websites and other platforms has also been a key message. Working with Aptivate we have shown publishers how they can modify their sites for low-bandwidth environments. Several publishers have begun to explore low bandwidth modifications as a result.

To find out more visit the Publishers for Development website.