Issues of air pollution, climate breakdown, an inactivity epidemic, road injuries and deaths, and unequal access to transport are more urgent and relevant than ever. Does your research speak to these pressing policy problems? Active Travel Studies (ATS) welcomes submissions from those taking a critical approach to these themes.
Very nearly in its third year, the ATS Journal is a flourishing forum for high-quality and relevant research on all aspects of active travel. It forms part of the Active Travel Academy (ATA)’s mission to create a bridge between researchers and the practitioner and activist communities.
The ATA at the University of Westminster brings together a broad spectrum of expertise to lead research, teaching and knowledge exchange on walking, wheeling, cycling and other active modes, use of ‘micromobilities’ and reduction in car use.
The ATA believes all disciplines and expertise are needed to address the acute global problems that car-dominated transport systems have created and takes a critical approach to pressing policy problems, drawing on a wide range of tools and methods, from Big Data to (auto)ethnography.
It was important to founding editors Tom Cohen and Rachel Aldred that the journal was as accessible as possible, for both readers and contributors, which is why it is available open-access (all content is available to all at no cost) and there are no article processing charges.
The ATS Journal fills a gap in the academic market. “There are numerous transport journals, but none that addressed active travel specifically, despite it receiving growing attention as a topic,” says Tom. “We hope we are helping to cement the status of active travel as a major part of the transport discourse, amongst researchers, practitioners and activists.”
ATS is a good shop window for authors working on walking, wheeling, cycling and other forms of active travel. The fact that it’s open access means there are no barriers to those who want to read the material and, with no article processing fees, authors themselves are not out of pocket.
“We would like ATS to be well known and well respected as the primary source of recent research on all aspects of active travel,” says Tom.
To access all issues of the ATS Journal and to make submissions, in written and/or multimedia formats, please visit https://activetravelstudies.org/
Category: University of Westminster
Momentum at a New University Press: Revisiting the UWP Story
Reflecting on the merits of consistent publishing activity and its multiplier effects – some reflections on UWP’s growth on the Ubiquity Press blog from the University of Westminster Press: ‘Thanks a Million: Momentum at a New University Press‘
Interesting to compare with the view in September 2015 ‘Setting up a University Press in the Digital Age’ and again as recently as May 2019, ‘Setting up a University Press in the Digital Age Revisited‘ when a fuller UWP timeline was presented.
Still unconfirmed but possible we will be able to announce in July 1.25 million views and downloads to end June but we have to wait for the data which may or may not confirm that!
Andrew Lockett, Press Manager
New Scholarly Publications Manager Sought at UWP
After over six years (part-time and full time) Andrew Lockett is to step down as Press Manager of the University of Westminster Press during August 2021. Andrew has achieved amazing things, working closely with UWP authors, editors and other contributors since UWP began, to enable us to reach a point where we soon will have published 36 books and 7 policy briefs, operating 6 journals. While we are sorry to see Andrew leave and we will miss his knowledge and expertise – we will soon be advertising an exciting opportunity to join UWP and influence its future directions in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Westminster. Look out for the announcement of the replacement post especially those interested working across publishing functions at a digital-first new university press, publishing across a range of interdisciplinary, humanities and social sciences disciplines including media and communication studies.
Jenny Evans, Research Environment and Scholarly Communications Lead
UPDATE
Details of the post now advertised here.
A Cool Million: UWP Reach Readership Landmark
Over 1 million views and downloads have now been achieved by the University of Westminster Press since publishing its first journal issue in September 2015. (Figures end April 2021). The graphic presenting the following (and more) can be downloaded from our website.
Total Readership: 1,089,280
Books: 560,573
Journal Articles: 528,707
Readership by Nationality (estimate, where recorded) from 197 countries and territories.
1. UK 2. USA 3. Canada 4. Germany 5. Brazil 6. China 7. Australia 8. India 9. Italy 10. Spain
Authors of New Publications: 276 unique authors from 38 countries, recorded by institution or current domicile.
Publications total:
35 books and 7 policy briefs
192 new journal articles from 2 new titles launched and 3 existing journals new to UWP
719 archive journal articles and 5 books distributed
Most Popular Book Titles: (1) Critical Theory and Authoritarian Populism (ed. J. Morelock) 68,260 views/downloads (2) The Propaganda Model Today (ed. J. Pedro-Carañana et al.) 63,353 (3) Critical Theory of Communication (C. Fuchs) 37,350.
Top Journal Titles: Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture (290,505 since 15/9/2015), Entertainment and Sports Law Journal (165,847 since 26/06/2016) and Journal of Deliberative Democracy 55,787 (since 28/08/2020).
UWP Series: ‘Critical Digital and Social Media Studies‘, 20 titles: 353,317; ‘CAMRI Policy Briefs‘, 7 titles, 44,413; ‘Law and the Senses‘ 24,102 (3 titles).
Context: UWP was established by a University steering group in 2014, hired its first part-time employee in February 2015 and published its journal issue in September 2015 and first book in October 2016. Its website went fully live on 12 May 2015. UWP has worked with platform providers Ubiquity Press and more recently for journals since 5 January 2021 Michigan Publishing/Janeway. It has functioned as a mixed model diamond open access publisher supported by income from book sales, central university and departmental contributions, one-off external university and grant-holder donations and library membership collective funding notably Knowledge Unlatched’s ‘Select’ programmes for individual titles. Many of its publications are in the area of media and communications but it has published book titles in history, philosophy, geography, education and politics. Its activities are overseen by a single UWP Editorial Board and it works within Research and Scholarly Communications, of the Research and Knowledge Exchange Office, Student and Academic Services, University of Westminster.
UWP is considered to be a ‘New University Press‘, digital-first with open access as a key principle. Its logo is a ‘W’ consisting of an open laptop and an open book.
Thanks to our editors, authors, peer reviewers, UWP editorial board members past and present, series board members and our partners Ubiquity Press (books and website) and Michigan Publishing Services and Janeway (journals) and all our colleagues at the University of Westminster for helping UWP reach this landmark.
UWP, #openaccessweek2020: a raincheck
At the end of #openaccessweek2020 honoured to reflect that since September 2015 open access imprint @UniWestPress has published 254 unique editor/authors in our journals and books from 34 countries. That’s 32 books (incl. edited), 6 policy briefs and 5 distributed titles; 131 new journal articles also making available 719 archive journal articles.
Today we have just had certain confirmation that we have hit over 750,000 views and downloads for our publications already, close to a 50% increase in less than a full year. Over 20% of UWP’s unique authors are University of Westminster authors with on the other hand 58% of contributions originating from outside the UK. Many authors (75) have worked with us more than once. One of our journals Silk Road is based at Westminster International University in Tashkent.
It’s not all about quantities. Our books have been translated into Spanish, Chinese and (shortly) Turkish; one has won a Latin American prize. We’re proud of our diverse range of authors from the global south, Europe, from all corners of the English-speaking world, feminist writers and early career research authors, the academic stars of the future as well as – Jurgen Habermas, Antonio Negri and Jean-Luc Nancy contributors to our list.
It would not have been possible without support of our authors and editors @UniWestminster @UniWestLib @ubiquitypress the Research Environment and Knowledge Exchange Team at Westminster and the UWP editorial board.
UWP – new full catalogue
UWP‘s complete listing of current published books and journals has arrived. It lists all published titles and those forthcoming for 2020 and is now available for downloading from our home page on our website.
University of Westminster Press blog 