Annual Report - Athabasca University Press | Athabasca University Press

A Year in Review

More than

600

scholars published

21%

of the authors and editors of AU Press books are international scholars

“Of the publishers I have worked with, you (Pamela) and Athabasca University Press were the best—good personal contact, excellent advice and editing, and a great-looking book.”
—Frank Elwell, author of Sociocultural Systems

Remix: A New Imprint for OERs

In 2023, AU Press launched Remix, a new imprint focused on publishing open educational resources written or adapted by Athabasca University faculty. This new imprint advances Athabasca University’s stated commitment to “the removal of barriers that restrict access to and success in university-level study and to increasing equality of educational opportunity for adult learners worldwide.” The works published under this imprint are licensed under Creative Commons licences and are freely available at aupress.ca and through OER repositories.

AU Press has always been known for its unique approach to publication and its commitment to open access. This new imprint showcases our commitment to innovative approaches to digital publishing.

Critical Thinking, Logic and Argument by Eric Dayton and Kristin Rodier

Introduction to Computer Programming with Python by Harris Wang

Read, Think, Write: Writing in University by Pam Chamberlain and Adien Dubbelboer

Writer-in-Residence Book Series

In collaboration with the Writer-in-Residence committee, AU Press publishes a series of short books written by Athabasca University’s writer-in-residence. Our first title was The Virtues of Disillusionment by Steven Heighton, a brief essay that explores how disappointment can be better than hope. In 2023, we published Indigiqueerness: A Conversation about Storytelling by Joshua Whitehead, in dialogue with Angie Abdou, a tender, electic reflection from a celebrated Indigenous author on his life, work, and queer identity. The next book in the series will be an essay on writing about Ukraine from last year’s writer-in-residence, Myrna Kostash.

Accessible Ebooks: Extending our Commitment to Access

AU Press is one of a handful of organizations worldwide that is a certified producer of accessible publications. The Press achieved its certification through Benetech, a non-profit organization that creates software for social good and that offers the only third-party electronic publishing certification program. The certification recognizes publishers who produce ebook files that meet or exceed accessibility standards. Open access is a guiding principle at AU Press and making our books available to those with perceptual (print) disabilities is another way for us to remove barriers to knowledge and serve a wider community of readers.

34%

of our list is accessible and meets WCAG 2.1 AA standards.

Our Book Program

33,174

pdf downloads in 2023

OA Readership:

Canadian

0 %

International

0 %

5 most frequently downloaded books

Open Data Structures: An Introduction by Pat Morin

Sociocultural Systems: Principles of Structure and Change by Frank W. Elwell

Theory and Practice of Online Learning (second edition) edited by Terry Anderson

Mind, Body, World: Foundations of Cognitive Science by Michael R. W. Dawson

How Education Works: Teaching, Technology, and Technique by Jon Dron

We added another 13 books to our online reading platform in 2023. During this time, overall readership on the platform has increased by 290%. In total, users of the platform have made more than 10,000 annotations to our books.

Our books have been adopted in university courses across Canada at institutions such as the University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University, the University of Alberta, the University of Calgary, Concordia University, Carleton University, Queen’s University, University of Toronto, and more. They’ve also been used in courses throughout the United States and around the world at institutions that include Northern Arizona University, SUNY College of Technology, University of Dallas, Illinois State University, University of California, and the Open University, among others.

Awards

Memory and Landscape: Indigenous Responses to a Changing North edited by Kenneth L. Pratt and Scott A. Heyes

Winner – 2023 Scholarly and Academic Book of the Year, Alberta Book Publishing Awards

Winner – 2023 Book Design, Alberta Book Publishing Awards

“Truth Behind Bars”: Reflections on the Fate of the Russian Revolution by Paul Kellogg

Winner – 2023 Society for Socialist Studies’ Errol Sharpe Book Prize

Under the Nakba Tree: Fragments of a Palestinian Family in Canada by Mowafa Said Househ

Winner – 2023 Independent Publisher Awards: Best Regional Non-Fiction

Little Wet-Paint Girl by Ouanessa Younsi, translated by Rebecca L. Thompson

Shortlist – Book Cover Design, Alberta Book Publishing Awards

Our Journal Program

journal articles published in 2023

294,054

article downloads in 2023

35,000

monthly visitors to the site

Canada’s 3rd highest ranked education journal

Top downloaded article from IRRODL: Designing a Community of Inquiry in Online Courses by Holly Fiock, Purdue University.

Public Engagement

We bring AU Press books and journals to the public in a variety of ways. In addition to the standard tools of wide distribution and targeted marketing, we take care to build our publishing program and its profile on social media, where the value of our open access mandate is just one click away. We also play an active role in our industry and publishing community by participating in a number of organizations that seek to develop sustainable scholarly publishing models, to advance the open access movement, and to highlight the role of writing and publishing in the creation of a vibrant and diverse society.

AU Press Books in the News

A few highlights from the countless reviews of AU Press books that appeared this year.

“A timely publication that calls to action those in positions of power and privilege to understand the nuances and intricacies involved in a process that has life-and-death consequences. Finding Refuge in Canada is informative, compelling, and apt for all readers: academics, advocates, policymakers, and service providers alike.”
—Gemechu Abeshu, Great Plains Research

“Metaphors of Ed Tech has highlighted the use of metaphors to the specific discipline of Educational Technology. By the end, both specialists and newcomers will feel they have achieved a better understanding of many of the current post-pandemic challenges facing Ed Tech and will be glad they persisted on their journey through the book.”
—Elspeth Nelson, Open Learning: The Journal of Open, Distance and e-Learning

“Told with empathy and moral courage, Under the Nakba Tree offers a refusal of the Palestinian generation born in exile to let their history and rights disappear from political and domestic conversations. Published on the eve of the 74th anniversary of the Nakba, this story offers a narrative of survival and resistance—a refutation of past and current inequality, discrimination and injustice. By opting to stand up and tell his story, Househ does not hide or swallow the humiliation but instead spits it out.”
—Donald Wright, Histoire sociale / Social History

“[Screening Nature and Nation is] an insightful analysis of several underexplored but historically significant NFB nature documentaries and science films. Based on archival research, primarily from the National Film Board Archives, media scholars will undoubtedly be interested in his discussions of key individuals in Canadian film history, such as Laura Boulton, Evelyn Cherry, Radford “Budge” Crawley, Larry Gosnell, and Dalton Muir.”
—American Review of Canadian Studies

Engaging Virtually

AU Press maintains a presence on Instagram, Facebook, and X where we announce new publications and run a variety of campaigns and features. In 2023, we had the opportunity to work with a number of bookstagrammers to promote Indigiqueerness.

Our bi-monthly newsletter highlights recent reviews, forthcoming books, links to related articles on open access publishing, and author activities. Recent virtual activities involving AU Press authors include:

Joshua Whitehead and Angie Abdou spoke about Indgiqueerness at the Learning with Syeyutsus Speaker Series.
Isabel Altamirano-Jiménez spoke about her co-edited book Living on the Land: Indigenous Women’s Understanding of Place at the Learning with Syeyutsus Speaker Series.
AU Press books were exhibited virtually at the Athabasca University Research Forum
The editors of Critical Digital Pedagogy in Higher Education hosted a virtual launch to celebrate the publication of their book.
Megan Hall spoke about our open access mandate at the annual AUPresses meeting.
Contributors to Bucking Conservatism hosted a virtual event through the University of Lethbridge to share details about the publishing process of this successful book.
The editors of Class Warrior: The Selected Works of E.T. Kingsley launched their book online with the Human Rights Research and Education Centre at UOttawa.

Engaging in Real Life

In-person events returned in 2023 and we were lucky to host book launches and exhibit our books at conferences once again. Here’s where our books and staff landed this year:

Congress of Social Sciences and Humanities (Toronto, ON)
Frankfurt Book Fair (Frankfurt, Germany)
Alberta Book Day (Edmonton, AB)
Parkland Institute Annual Fall Conference (Edmonton, AB)
Society for the Study of Architecture in Canada (Calgary, AB)
NAISA (Toronto, ON)
Alberta Book Publishing Conference and Awards (Edmonton, AB)
Athabasca University Convocation (Edmonton, AB)
Book launch for How to Read Like You Mean It by Kyle Conway at The Spaniel’s Tale (Ottawa, ON)
Book launch for Not Hockey: Critical Essays on Canada’s Other Sport Literature edited by Angie Abdou and Jamie Dopp at the University Club of Victoria (Victoria, BC)

Community Participation

Members of AU Press participate in a number of industry organizations and benefit from partnerships and conversations with a broad variety of publishing and academic colleagues. AU Press staff currently serve on the board of the Book Publishers Association of Alberta, work on the executive of the Association of Canadian University Presses, the Open Access Committee at the Association of University Presses, and as a member of the Association of Canadian Publishers’ Higher Education Committee.

AU Press is based in Alberta and our readers here are important to us. To that end, we ensure our books are accessible to readers in the province through the Read Alberta eBook Collection and the Prairie Indigenous eBook Collection available at Alberta libraries. A selection of our books also appear in Alberta Books for Schools digital database and print catalogue. This collection allows educators to discover Alberta-published books that have already been matched to the Alberta curriculum.