The publishing house is celebrating its launch on Wednesday, 27 November, at 6 p.m. in the Center for Interdisciplinary Research (ZiF) with invited guests and a panel discussion.
Bielefeld University Press is now transferring the proven quality assurance review process of academic journals to a book publisher: independent experts will review the contributions submitted by researchers for their academic excellence (peer review) and recommend them for publication if the quality meets the standards of Bielefeld University Press. In the first phase, the publishing house will be concentrating on research from the humanities and social sciences.
Especially top-level research from the Bielefeld Collaborative Research Centre 'Practices of Com-paring' (SFB 1288), the Centre for Advanced Latin American Studies (CALAS) or the Institute for Interdisciplinary Research on Conflict and Violence (IKG) can thus be made accessible to a broad specialist public. This also applies to research from the digital humanities: a new focus of the humanities at Bielefeld University involving data science.
'Up to now, research findings from the humanities and social sciences have often had to undergo lengthy publication processes at book publishers. Our model allows a modern and flexible publication model along the lines of the Open Access concept. This makes Bielefeld University Press a cutting-edge publication platform for excellent research,' says Professor Dr Reinhold Decker, Vice-rector for Information Management.
'We intend to continue developing the publishing house in line with high academic standards. For instance, we are opening the publishing house to outstanding contributions from national and international researchers who conduct top-level research in the humanities,' adds Sabrina Timmer, managing director of Bielefeld University Press.
In keeping with the interdisciplinary and international guiding principles of the publishing house, the Editorial Board consists of Bielefeld researchers from the fields of sociology, history, literature, and linguistics. Renowned national and international academics make up the Scientific Advisory Board: Professor Dr Anil Bhatti, Professor Dr Elena Esposito, Professor Dr Demetrius Eudell, and Professor Dr Johannes Grave.
The foundation and the development phase of the publishing house will be celebrated at the launch on 27 November. Rector Professor Dr.-Ing. Gerhard Sagerer and Vice-rector Professor Dr Reinhold Decker will be opening the evening at the ZiF. The following round of talks will deal with cutting-edge publication strategies in academia and at Bielefeld University, in particular the Open Access approach and the requirements for a modern academic publishing house. The discussants include Pro-fessor Dr Angelika Epple, spokesperson for the Collaborative Research Centre 'Practices of Comparing', Barbara Knorn, director of the University Library, Dr Karin Werner, transcript publishing house, and Professor Dr Olaf Kaltmeier, CALAS of Bielefeld University.
The initiative to set up Bielefeld University Press originated from the Collaborative Research Centre 'Practices of Comparing", which had made it its goal to develop an innovative publication strategy.
With transcript, one of the leading academic publishers in the German-speaking world, Bielefeld University Press has gained an excellent local cooperation partner that can ensure close, joint con-sulting and support for authors.
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Journalists are cordially invited to the launch. Prior to the event on 27 November, they will have the opportunity to ask their questions from 5.30 p.m. on. Please register in advance at medien@uni-bielefeld.de.