Reflection on the OIPA Symposium 2025

Reflection on the OIPA Symposium 2025

On Tuesday 21st October 2025 the open institutional publishing community came together to listen to OIPA members share their experience in advancing open access publishing.

Access the recording and slides.

Read on for a summary of the event!

OIPA Chair Kate Petherbridge (Press Manager for White Rose University Press and White Rose Libraries Executive Manager) introduced the event, outlining OIPA’s presence at various events during 2025 and celebrating our growing membership.

The symposium then formally kicked off with Samuel Moore (Scholarly Communication Specialist at Cambridge University Library; College Research Associate at King’s College Cambridge, and member of OIPA’s Advisory Board) who shared information about MORPHSS (Materialising Open Research Practices in the Humanities and Social Sciences) and their various work packages on defining, cataloguing, encouraging and embedding open research practices in AHSS.

Next, Elinor Potts (Communications Coordinator, LSE Press) gave her presentation ‘Dare to boast! In defence of book marketing and celebrating wins’ where she argued for the importance of marking victories in open access. Bonus points to Elinor for including a Schopenhauer reference!

We then moved on to Caroline Edwards and Paula Clemente Vega from the Open Library of Humanities who presented on OLH, the Open Journals Collective, Diamond Open Access, equitable funding models, and zombie journals!

Next, Allison Levy (Director, Brown University Digital Publications) spoke about new approaches to collaboration through Brown University Digital Publications – a collaboration between the University Library and the Dean of the Faculty – which promotes innovative faculty scholarship through both the practice and recognition of new scholarly forms.

John Atkinson (University of Westminster Press Manager) then took to the digital stage to present ‘Adventures in Experimental Publishing’ where he asked how we can define experimental publishing and shared the University of Westminster Press’s journey in this area so far.

Next up was Laura Swift (Editorial Manager, Open Press University of Sussex) who explored the importance of Open Educational Resources (OERs) and how they are an exciting opportunity for institutional publishing.

Finally, Tom Morley (Research Culture and Open Monographs Lead, Lancaster University) shared insights from his and his team’s work on Lancaster University Open Journals – one of OIPAs newest members!

The symposium was then wonderfully wrapped up by Andrew Barker, Chair of the OIPA Advisory Board.

Thank you to everyone who attended or who caught up with our recording after. It was refreshing to all come together, especially with ongoing pressures in the Higher Education sector. The OIPA symposium was a wonderful reminder of the importance of collaboration, pooling resources and knowledge, and of institutional publishing itself.

We look forward to seeing you in 2026 for our symposium in Brighton!