Brigitte Shull is the country manager for the US at Cambridge University Press and also manages a team within the Academic business. She says since her job is focused on Research and Development, it is therefore designed to evolve.

She is the business owner for two cross-functional teams, Cambridge Open Engage and Author Hub. She feels it a privilege to work with the Scholarly Communications R&D team and these project teams, describing her colleagues as “great people – smart, forward-looking and enthusiastic,” and says she gains a lot of energy from them.

Brigitte joined the Press at the start of 2017.  A graduate in political science from the University of Virginia, her publishing career began at Pearson Education, where she was an editorial assistant. Based in Boston, she was one of the custom textbook team, supporting the customer-facing team that managed textbook adoptions. She then moved to New York, where she still works, where she was a books editor for literary criticism. Palgrave then merged with Nature; after the merger she became the Head of Author and Editorial Services. After a second merger with Springer, she took on managing the Political Science, Business & Management, Economics and Law books and journals portfolio globally. Of the experience of working across change projects and developing author services, she said, “This set me up for what I do at Cambridge now.”

Most of Brigitte’s working day revolves around the many-faceted aspects of Open Access and Read & Publish [R&P]. She is both proud of and excited by the prominent thought-leadership role Cambridge has assumed as take-up of these new business models has escalated. “It was an amazing lever for us to pull. Only a small portion of our journals portfolio consisted of OA articles and growth in OA was a challenge under other models. R&P has enabled us to transition a higher percentage of our portfolio in a relatively short period of time and simultaneously build new kinds of relationships. We are able to work in genuine partnership with librarians and institutions to meet the inevitable challenges that arise – inevitable because R&P is a transitional model, not a silver bullet. A key challenge is not just to provide open access but to communicate that such access exists. But it is incredible to see the rate at which journals are ‘flipping’ –our ambition is for all the research content in our journals to be open by the end of 2022. If someone had told me that when I joined the Press just over four years ago, I would not have believed it.”

Cambridge has long included society publishers’ journals in its portfolio and Brigitte says it is important to understand the particular circumstances they face. Most believe in the benefits of increasing openness but deciding exactly when their journals should flip isn’t necessarily as simple as a percentage threshold of articles going open, because of the services they provide to their communities through non-research content and questions around author equity. There are some society journals editors who are still considering transformative status under Plan S because of these kinds of concerns.

Brigitte is following the publishing activities of ‘new university presses’ – which are usually run by librarians – with keen interest. She is impressed by their achievements, although she feels that attempting to make cost/efficiency comparisons between them and traditional university presses is “like comparing apples with pears. How non-editorial and production costs like real estate, staff, etc., are included when calculating the costs of their publications varies and isn’t as straightforward across more diversified businesses.”

Asked how she sees the future of open when it emerges from the transitional stage, Brigitte says that it is not yet possible to predict in detail what will happen, but she anticipates that the Press will work towards “more of an inclusive institutional open agreement, one that eliminates the dichotomy of R&P or P&R”. It will need to better address access to publication for authors globally, to ensure that researchers can publish their work. New forms of journal and new types of publishing are emerging as well.

Speaking of the invaluable exchange of ideas that takes place between Cambridge and its five (soon to be six) librarian advisory boards, Brigitte says she will be interested to see whether the different regions they represent will follow the same broad trajectory as they embrace Open Access, or diverge in their approach. Alternatively a different kind of split might take place, based not on geography but between research-intensive institutions and those more focused on teaching. “Some universities have taken a very integrated approach, with a clear connection to research strategy; others are feeling their way more slowly. And it has to be acknowledged that some universities don’t have the resource to engage with all the R&P deals they would like to.”

Cambridge is delighted that librarians have provided opportunities to establish closer working relationships with the Press. “There is definitely more alignment of our respective goals. We can tailor the deals through mutual adjustment and analysis. We don’t want to come up with hard policy rules, but to work flexibly and in consultation wherever possible. The early feedback we receive from the advisory boards enables us to make some key decisions.”

Brigitte says that Cambridge is on the ‘front foot’ with open. “As a university press, we embrace open as fundamental to our mission. It’s not just about making sure as much content as possible no longer sits behind a paywall; we also have to make all our open activities sustainable.”

Cambridge Academic has now signed R&P deals with 112 institutions worldwide. CUP’s Academic division has grown significantly in recent years, placing additional emphasis on support for HE as well as continuing to build on its long-standing reputation for supporting research, and has invested in some ‘brilliant new products and platforms’ in the process. Cambridge Open Engage, for example, was developed entirely to support openness and involved a massive investment of resource and commitment.

Brigitte has a toddler son who occupies most of her time when she isn’t working. However, she practises yoga to help her relax. Although her interest in sport is largely peripheral, out of solidarity for her partner she supports Arsenal, the British football team, and has attended two of their matches during her visits to the UK.  Speaking of the effect the pandemic has had on her professional and personal life, she says she has experienced both advantages and disadvantages from working at home. Before the pandemic she would travel extensively, to conferences and the UK office.  She misses it, but while her son is young it is convenient not to have to manage travel and having more time and flexibility for the desk job is a benefit. 

Brigitte Shull is grateful to be able to contribute to the whole OA cultural shift and resulting development of the new knowledge economy. “There is an amazing level of productivity at Cambridge: our people have really made the ongoing transition to open a positive experience.”