Publisher Submission Portal User Survey - Autumn 2021

Abstract

• A presentation given to the Collection Development and Acquisitions sub-group (CDAS) of the Legal Deposit Implementation Group in December 2021. CDAS brings together representatives from the six UK legal deposit libraries, to report on operational matters and plan policy for co-operation on managing the legal deposit collections. The Publisher Submission Portal is a tool that can be used to deposit born digital publications to the British Library, and other legal deposit libraries, to fufil obligations under legal deposit law. The Portal is designed for use by small publishers, defined as producing 50 or fewer publications per year. This is a report on a survey of publishers who use the Portal, conducted in December 2021. The aim of the survey was to understand the behaviour and motivations of users of the Portal, and also to find out more about user experience. The Portal is used by self-publishers, alongside policy units, research organisations and voluntary organisations in the UK. The responses to the survey give an insight into the 'long tail' of publishing in the UK.