Summary of the impact

Hall's research has had demonstrable impact on policy, academic publishing and cultural life particularly through the development of Open Access (OA) publishing for exploiting, disseminating and commercialising academic research. The research reaches beyond academia to the international publishing industry and policy bodies through: publicly accessible, free-to-use, digital platforms/tools; and by establishing an OA publishing house, Open Humanities Press (OHP). Following his creation of one of the field's first e-journals, Culture Machine, Hall's research has significantly influenced methods, ideas and ethics within the publishing profession and public policy debate. Beneficiaries include academic authors, publishers, readers, research funders and research policy makers worldwide.

Underpinning research

Hall's underpinning research is synonymous with the pioneering of a new publication process, which has been employed to identify, investigate and overcome limitations in the current system of academic publishing, both theoretically (in the form of written work on the subject, disseminated in books and journals), and practically. The success of Open Humanities Press (OHP) is testament to the significant impact of Hall's research in the latter respect (i.e. in practice). Hall's Open Access (OA) work, undertaken at the Universities of Middlesex (2000-2007), Coventry (2007-present) and Cambridge (2010), has played an important role in pioneering the development of Open Access for arts and humanities research publication. The research directly addresses the crisis in scholarly publishing, whereby both traditional commercial and university publishers have cut back on research-led titles in favour of readers, introductions and text books which address bigger and more profitable markets.

In 1999, Hall, frustrated with the global issues of limitations of reach resulting from small publishing budgets, increasing difficulty in publishing and escalating journal subscription fees, set up the cultural theory e-journal — Culture Machine (http://www.culturemachine.net). As an early adopter of Open Access in the humanities this journal impacted positively on cultural life by seeking out, analysing and promoting the most provocative of new work from diverse international authors. It opened up new frontiers of cultural and theoretical activity by promoting research and by constituting new areas of inquiry. Hall published numerous influential articles on the impact of Open Access using this experience and practical examples to outline a new theory and philosophy of Open Access. [2,4,5,6].

Spurred on by Culture Machine's success and influenced by Paul Ginsparg's Physics archive (www.arXiv.org) , in 2006 Hall established the first Open Access archive for media and cultural studies. CSeARCH (Cultural Studies e-Archive) encouraged authors to upload pre-print versions of their research to circumvent journal copyright and subscription issues [1]. One of the consequences was to ensure research literature, past and present, is freely available to researchers, teachers and students, world-wide.

Having established the high impact potential of Open Access publication methods [1] Hall's research progressed to tackling issues of presage and validity in arts and humanities publishing more generally. He co-founded OHP (http://www.openhumanitiespress.org), the first Open Access publishing house explicitly dedicated to critical and cultural theory. It was initially set up both to further test the theory of Open Access, and as a means to tackle the increasingly limited reach of research in the field brought about by escalating prices which have forced libraries to cut back purchases of monographs and periodicals. Launched in 2008 by an international group of highly esteemed scholars, OHP developed a new sustainable business model for the open publication, dissemination and commercial exploitation of academic research and scholarship in the arts and humanities [6]. This success led to Hall's research focus increasingly on humanities open access publishing. His monograph draws on his practical experience as a writer, editor, archivist and publisher to examine how the shift from print to digital media is generating new models for publication, dissemination and commercial exploitation of academic scholarship and research [1]. In 2009 OHP launched the monograph project [2,4,6]. Designed to publish monographs in an Open Access manner, this project runs in collaboration with five world-leading American Universities.

Hall's research has also pushed the boundaries of traditional publishing by exploring the definition of publication and academic writing. For example, the JISC-funded [A] "Living Books About Life" (LiviBL) project commissioned a sustainable series of 24 electronic open access books, edited by international authors (http://www.livingbooksaboutlife.org/), which repackaged and re-presented existing open access STEM-related research content for non-scientific readers. While the final version of each edited book is available to download, the reader is encouraged to contribute to the live version and to discuss the evolving content online. This research built on earlier work using similar techniques to those of the Culture Machine Liquid Books series, (http://liquidbooks.pbwiki.com/). Hall's research also explores the boundaries between the book and other media to create hybrids involving written text and other media.

References to the research

b) Key Research Funds

A. PI: Hall with Goldsmiths College University of London, University of Kent, and Open Humanities Press as partners. Title: Enriching via Collaboration for a project entitled Living Books About Life (LiviBL). Period: 01/03/11 - 30/09/11. Sponsor: HEFCE, JISC e-Content Programme Strand A, Total funding: £48,099

Details of the impact

British universities have world-class reputations and are crucial to our social and economic future, as the single greatest producers of original intellectual property: our researchers constitute 3.3% of global research and produce 8% of academic journal articles globally (Arcadia 2010). However, this strong position is being endangered by current academic publishing models. It is imperative to rethink academic publishing, particularly with regard to the arts, humanities and social sciences in the digital age, and it is here that Hall's research has had the most impact.

Impact on Policy: Hall's setting up and running of an Open Access publishing company was expressly conceived to impact on a wider international publishing industry and policy-orientated audience. This has been achieved, with impact indicators including substantial citing of OHP by Dr Fay Bound Alberti, Senior Policy Adviser to the Arcadia Group, in `Democratic Access to Academic Knowledge', a briefing paper delivered to Downing Street, 23 June, 2010, supported by YouGov (http://tinyurl.com/22qd7py). This paper calls for 'partnerships between universities and organisations like the Open Humanities Press'; and for government legislation that 'makes it mandatory for UK Research Councils to support platforms for the publication of completed theses, articles and monographs'.

Hall has influenced the placing of open access on the policy agenda, evidenced, for example, in the Intellectual Property Office report on Academic Knowledge, Open Access and Democracy, to which, as a leading creator, user and distributor of academic knowledge, Hall is a signatory and contributor (http://tinyurl.com/oho3wt3). Hall was a named signatory to the Hargreaves report on `Academic Knowledge, Open Access and Democracy', submitted to government by Arcadia, which is working with David Willetts, Minister of State for Universities and Science, to explore alternative publishing models such as that pioneered by OHP.

Hall was also one of 60 senior academics invited to sign a public statement for the French newspaper Le Monde under the title `Who is afraid of open access?', calling for the rapid establishment of Open Access (http://tinyurl.com/c8pd4bu).

Impact on Academic Publishing: Hall's contribution to impact in academic publishing can be seen from the reviews of his books. For example, Penny Holliday, 'New Media: Digitize This Book! The Politics of New Media', MC Reviews, 23 April, 2008 [a], `The title alone of Digitize this Book! conveys something of the energy and sense of urgency infusing Gary Hall's text on why and how open access publishing is of great benefit to the humanities, and in particular cultural studies. As Peter Singer is to philosophy, and Tim Flannery is to the environment, Gary Hall is to open access publishing...'. Eileen Joy, Co-director of Punctum Books, an open-access, print-on-demand independent publishers for books and journals stated that "OHP, along with re-press (based in Melbourne) have been the two biggest influences upon how Punctum Books has conceptualised its publishing and business frameworks" [b].

Christine L. Borgman — `Book Review: Digitize This Book! by Gary Hall, University of Minnesota Press, 2008', Technology and Culture, 25 June, 2009, says `Gary Hall's manifesto is provocative and timely, if not as timeless as Abbie Hoffman's Steal This Book, to which Hall's title presumably refers. The book is an extended argument for open access, specifically for the OA model of depositing academic research and scholarship in online archives or repositories (he uses the latter two terms synonymously). OA arose first in the sciences, out of a need for speed and breadth of dissemination that was not being met by traditional publishing channels. Humanities publishing in general, and cultural studies in particular (the central focus of Hall's work and the repository he founded), have different concerns than the sciences. His argument that the academic gift economy is more central to the humanities than to the sciences is among the strengths of this book. He claims that "another university is possible," in which all scholarly products are available freely (i.e., free of cost to the reader) and are permanently accessible...'. [c].

OHP is widely recognised as leading to change in the way arts and humanities research is published. For example, Ted Striphas, Indiana University, stated `For cultural studies, the most exciting open access developments are the new Open Humanities Press initiative, which brings together seven peer-reviewed online critical and cultural theory journals, and the Cultural Studies Electronic Archive, which is an online research repository. Both were co-founded by the field's own publishing visionary, Gary Hall' [d]. Similarly Stephen Greenblatt, Harvard University, indicated `Making scholarly work available without charge on the internet has offered hope for the natural sciences and now offers hope in the humanities' [e]. J. Hillis Miller, UC Irvine, proposed: `This project [OHP] is an admirable response to the current crisis in scholarly publishing and to the rapid shift from print media to electronic media' [f]. Fibreculture journal published its first issue in 2003. Andrew Murphie, Editor of Fibreculture stated that "the journal would not have lasted without joining the OHP in 2006. Membership in OHP has allowed the journal to think through its strategic direction and create projects which were a radical departure from common practices .. when they, and others in the field, look to what they need to be doing to be cutting edge, they look to Hall" [g]. Hall's contribution to European and International Academic Publishing can be evidenced in several of ways. For example, the Open Access Publishing in European Networks (OAPEN) report on Models for eBooks in the Humanities and Social Sciences used OHP as a case study (http://tinyurl.com/phrg4sf). In July 2010, OAPEN cited OHP in its Best Practices and Recommendations Report, (http://tinyurl.com/ptb85mw). Eelco Ferweda, Director of OAPEN stated "Hall was an inspiration and example to other presses" [h].

Similarly, Hall was part of the Alliance for Networking Visual Culture (ANVC) meeting with Press Partners, September 8-9, 2011, at University of Southern California. The meeting followed the receipt of US $3 million from the Mellon Foundation for OHP to form strategic partnerships with three University presses — MIT, California, Duke. In June 2013, the Mellon Foundation awarded Alliance for Networking Visual Culture a two-year implementation grant (2013-2015), to form a digital publishing institute with the aforementioned presses, five archives (Shoah Foundation, the Getty, Critical Commons, Hemispheric Institute's Digital Video Library (HIDVL), and the Internet Archive), and several humanities research centres (Duke, Michigan, University of Washington, Illinois, University of California, Shoah, Occidental, Claremont Colleges, Hemispheric Institute, the Getty, and Rice.). Hall has played a key role in the creation of the ANVC. He was particularly active in the planning stages, helping to identify goals for the organisation, potential partners and workflows for grants. The OHP is an active member of the Alliance.

With Leuphana University, Lüneburg, Germany, Hall is also supporting an EU-funded `hybrid publishing' project to establish an Open Access press, through an `open publishing consortium' to pool and develop open source technology solutions for scholarly publishing.

Impact on Cultural Life: Hall's research impact and reach is evidenced by viewing figures, web hits, popular media interviews and direct support for open access to cultural objects. Statistics include 4,000+ readers of Culture Machine per month, 3,555 visitors and 11,294 Living Books about Life project page views in just four days after its October 2011 launch. An open lecture given by Hall was the second most downloaded podcast on iTunesU in June 2009 and has since been viewed 10,000 times. An audio-video text co-authored by Hall was number 15 on the top iTunesU most downloaded philosophy charts and has been viewed 39,000 times. Hall's research significance is evidenced by the interest generated among a wider international public, publishing industry and policy-orientated audience. A full day at Transmediale international arts festival in Berlin, 2013 was dedicated to the agenda set by his work concerning Open Access and the University, with Hall and his PhD student each being the focus of an hour- long session.

The ground-breaking LiviBL project has changed the way that books are viewed. Tara McPherson, University of Southern California, states: `It is no hyperbole to say that this series will help us rethink everything we think we know about academic publishing. It points to a future that is interdisciplinary, open access, and expansive.' Similarly, Nicholas Mirzoeff, New York University, says: `This remarkable series transforms the humble Reader into a living form, while breaking down the conceptual barrier between the humanities and the sciences in a time when scholars and activists of all kinds have taken the understanding of life to be central. Brilliant in its simplicity and concept, this series is a leap towards an exciting new future'.

Published Interviews with Hall include, Victor Gaspar for Canal 22 TV, Mexico, 11 January, 2010; Seyma Akkoyunlu, for Zaman Daily Newspaper, Turkey 26 March, 2010; and Dr Rebecca Pool, science and technology journalist, for `Open to Debate', Research Information, April/May 2010. Digitize This Book! has been extensively reviewed, including in the popular science journal Nature. An interview with Hall was published by Tracey Caldwell as `OA in the Humanities Badlands', Information World Review, 4 June, 2008 and The Chronicle of Higher Education featured OHP twice (Jennifer Howard, `New Open-Access Humanities Press Makes Its Debut': Wednesday, May 7, 2008; Jennifer Howard, `The Wired Campus: New Open-Access Monograph Series Is Announced', August 7, 2009). Hall's research was also featured and substantially cited in Matthew Reisz, `"Giving It Away": A Textbook Argument', Times Higher Education cover story on open access, 12-18 November, 2009, pp.37-39.

Conclusion: Hall's research has achieved impact by challenging traditional models of publishing in arts and humanities. His focus on Open Access publishing and free access to all is driving forward the policy debate at the highest level worldwide. His formation of the Open Humanities Press and innovation in terms of research into the definition of `the book' is being used as a template for politicians, funders, University presses and other academics to follow.

Sources to corroborate the impact

a. Penny Holliday, 'New Media: Digitize This Book! The Politics of New Media', M/C Reviews, 23 April, 2008.
http://reviews.media-culture.org.au/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=3281

b. Eileen A. Joy, (2012) Disturbing the Wednesday-ish Business-as-Usual of the University Studium: A Wayzgoose Manifest Continent. 2.4: 260-268
http://continentcontinent.cc/index.php/continent/article/view/119 Information collected in interview by RAND Europe, document number PR-940-CU

c. Christine L. Borgman (2010) - 'Book Review: Digitize This Book! by Gary Hall, University of Minnesota Press, 2008' Technology and Culture 51 (3) pp. 768-770,
Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/tech.2010.0030

d. Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies, Department of Communication and Culture, Indiana University.

e. John Cogan University Professor of the Humanities, Harvard University.

f. Distinguished Research Professor, Comparative Literature, UC Irvine

g. Andrew Murphie, Editor, http://www.fibreculture.org/ Information collected in interview by RAND Europe, document number PR-940-CU

h. Eelco Ferweda, Director of (OAPEN and Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB). Information collected in interview by RAND Europe, document number PR-940-CU