The Search for an Alternative Workflow at UBC Press: Support- and Service-Based Models

University of British Columbia Press (UBC Press or ‘the Press’) has seen a continual reduction in sales, profits, and subsidies over the last three decades. The Production Department is under increasing pressure to reduce costs and produce content in an increasing number of formats. UBC Press has been experimenting with alternative workflows in recent years, and has recently tried the University of Toronto Press’ P-Shift (UTP-Shift, or P-Shift) Support-heavy, XML-early workflow, and Pressbooks’ Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), HTML-based workflow. This report explores why university presses are adopting workflows similar to P-Shift’s and examines why the HTML, SaaS workflow provided by PressBooks is not currently a viable workflow option for many scholarly books from a practical perspective. The report concludes that university presses are choosing workflows because of ease of implementation, lack of disruption, potential for cost reduction, and ability to handle all elements that compose scholarly texts.