University of Hyderabad today entered into a publishing agreement with Cambridge University Press (CUP) India Pvt Ltd, for publication of research output in its Humanities and Social Science departments.
CUP India is a 75:25 venture between the publishing division of Cambridge University (UK) and its Indian partners (earlier known as Foundation Books). The Rs 90-crore company distributes CUP's and a few other British publishers' academic books and dictionaries in India.
UoH vice chancellor Seyed Hasnain told a media conference that CUP would put the submitted manuscripts through a peer review to select items for publication, and would also hold the copyright for the published works.
The publisher would pay a 20 percent royalty on sales to the university, and would hold the rights to publish the approved works throughout the world in print and electronic form.
CUP managing director Manas Saikia and UoH registrar CP Mohan Kumar signed the agreement, which would be valid for five years initially, to be automatically extended by another two years on mutual consent.
Saikia said the deal would enable UoH authors get a worldwide audience for their works. Asked about the volumes expected from the deal, he said, “In a year from now, we want to have, say, about five books, and then we will add more. I don't think we will ever go beyond 20 publications a year.” He said this agreement is specific to UoH, with the initiative taken by the university.
The scholarly/academic book market in India could be worth around a couple of thousand crores, according to Saikia. On market conditions, he said, “It is not very good at present, because nobody is reading. It matters for a publisher because there is an explosion in the number of books being published. That is why we are introducing e-books.”
