What do #inaspPrinciples mean for Publishers?
INASP published a series of principles for responsible business last year (you can read about the reason for them in this blog. We invited our network of publishers to respond – to comment on the principles, and to share how they were working in ways that followed these principles. And we invited our partners – library consortia or digital library programmes and their members – to tell us how these principles, if followed, could help them to develop strong research systems in their countries.
But a series of principles was just the first step. The real question is ‘how do we put these into practice?’
How do you – as publishers firmly committed to supporting research and higher education systems in Africa, Asia and Latin America – ensure that you can build relationships and develop business in a way that enables – and doesn’t inadvertently damage – what countries are trying to achieve?
How can you ensure that the journals, books and databases that you publish – vital sources of information for research and teaching, but also policy and practice – enable researchers, students, policy makers and practitioners to make their essential contribution to development?
This year we want to make the practice the focus of our discussion – and this year’s Publishers for Development meeting on the 30th June provides a great opportunity to move the conversation forwards (register here if you haven’t already).
To help get those discussions going, we thought it would help to take each principle in turn, and to explore why it matters to our partners.
Principle 1: Taking the time to understand country context
Principle 2: Respect a country’s wish to negotiate as a consortium
Principle 3: Avoid making sudden changes
Principle 4 & 5: Pricing and sales: be predictable and realistic
Follow Publishers for Development on Twitter, and join the conversation using the hashtag #inaspPrinciples. PfD is a joint initiative of INASP and the Association of Commonwealth Universities.
