## **Annual Report April 6th 2022 - April 5th 2023** ## **AIMS AND PURPOSES** Mattering Press is an Open Access publisher that is dedicated to increasing access to the social scientific study of expert-led knowledge in a field often referred to as Science and Technology Studies (STS). As an open access publisher we aim to increase access to research in the field of STS by making it widely and freely available in the form of monographs and edited collections. Mattering Press established itself as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) on 15-05-2013. The object of the charity as set out in our constitution is To advance the education of the public in Science and Technology Studies, in particular by commissioning and publishing social scientific work on an open access basis. All Mattering books will, therefore, be available freely as ebooks and as printed books to purchase. We also support books using formats that are experimental or difficult to publish using conventional publishing models. In shaping our objectives for the year and planning our activities, the trustees have considered the Charity Commission’s guidance on public benefit, including the guidance on fee-charging. Open Access book publishing is still a relatively new phenomenon and the Open Access community is still experimenting with ways to make this form of publishing economically sustainable. The Press is partly funded through general donations, donations made for accessing books online and book sales. Mattering Press does charge fees to costs of publication, although discounts on this range from 25% to 100%. At the same time, we are working with partners in the ScholarLed consortium to develop new infrastructures and partnerships that will enable us to move away from a dependence on these fees. During the financial year that this document reports on – 06-04-2022 to 05-04-2023 - the Press continued to participate in events and projects that have been building the Open Access infrastructures. ## **ACTIVITIES** ## **Books Published** - Democratic Situations was published on May 18th 2022. The book is this book offers an urgently needed renewal of our understanding of democratic politics **.** The contributors study democracy as a rapidly shifting and techno-scientifically moving target, analysing it in the same way STS has treated other objects of science and technology **.** They take common sites of Euro-American participatory democracy - elections, bureaucracies, public debate and citizen participation - and examine them as fluctuating democratic situations where supposedly untouchable democratic ideals are shaped and contested in practice. - Concealing for Freedom was published on April 19th 2022. The book explores the most politically charged of all internet technologies: encryption. Encrypted messaging enables users to conceal private communications + online activities, often with specific ‘adversaries’ in mind. The authors invite us into the technical and political world of secure messaging, revealing the interplay between design choices and imaginaries of digital civil liberties. They offer an analytical portrait of the development of this field, following crises, debates and controversies. They examine three applications with different technical architectures as they grew, transformed and were reconfigured through use – Signal, LEAP/Pixelated and Briar. Opening up the social and political implications of design choices, they show how these platforms became subjects of controversy and contestation. ## **Project Involvement** - Mattering Press editors, Joe Deville and Julien McHardy, continued to be involved as a Co-Investigator and Consultant in the COPIM (Community-led Open Publication Infrastructures for Monographs) project funded by Research England and the Arcadia Fund (the project ended in April 2023). - This project work included a number of significant developments, including: - The launch of Mattering Press’ Supporter Programme via the Open Book Collective, which launched in December 2022. The launch of the Supporter Programme marks a significant moment in the press’ history. It aims ultimately to enable the press to move away from charging fees for the publication of its books. In time, this has the potential to enable the press to become more sustainable, enabling it to continue to publish books on a fully Open Access basis for the benefit of public. - Julien McHardy’s involvement in a number of experimental publishing conversations and initiatives, including contributing to discussions associated with the Books Contain Multitudes report (by Janneke Adema, Marcell Mars, and Tobias Steiner) and working towards the release of the Experimental Publishing Compendium (which was not launched in this accounting period, but is linked nonetheless) - Joe Deville, in his role as a Senior Lecturer at Lancaster University, led a successful funding application to the Arcadia Fund and the Research England Development Fund. This new project is titled Open Book Futures, and the award of the grant was announced in March 2023. The project’s work will provide crucial ongoing support for the Open Book Collective, which is key to Mattering Press’ long term sustainability. ## **Presentations** - Joe Deville delivered a keynote presentation (jointly with Dr Janneke Adema) at the London Book Fair in April 2022, titled “The case for open Open Access book infrastructures”. ## **STRUCTURE, GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT** Mattering Press is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) whose only voting members are its charity trustees. The charity trustees are also the General Editors for the Press. The Editors, or the Board of Trustees meet quarterly to administer the business of the Press. All decisions are brought to the board either via email or during meetings. Trustees each have a portfolio that they are responsible for administering. In the event of a retiring trustee, the board will meet to discuss the skill requirements needed to fill the position. In selecting individuals for appointment as charity trustees and Editors, the board has regard for the skills, knowledge and experience needed to administer the CIO. Nominations for the new Trustee may come from the Board or the wider STS community. The Editors will vote to accept new applications at a General Meeting. New trustees are then inducted into charity business at their first Trustees meeting. During this meeting they are briefed about their legal obligations under charity law, the Charity Commission guidance on public benefit, the Mattering Press Constitution, the committee and decision-making processes, the business plan and recent financial performance of the charity. The work of administering the charity is supported by the Advisory Board. ## **REFERENCE AND ADMINISTRATION DETAILS** The correspondence address for Mattering Press is 8 Limley Grove, Manchester, M21 8UB, United Kingdom. Charity Number: 1152056 The Trustees that have served during the financial year here reported and until the date this report was approved are as follows: Uli Beisel, University of Bayreuth, Germany Endre Dányi, Bundeswehr University Munich, Germany Joe Deville, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK Anna Dowrick, Oxford University, UK Julien McHardy, Studio, Amsterdam. Michaela Spencer, Charles Darwin University, Australia Natalie Gill, University of Western England, Bristol, UK ## **Professional Advisors** The Trustees would like to thank the following advisors and partners for their continued support. ## STS Advisory Board Geoffrey Bowker, University of California, Irvine Franck Cochoy, University of Toulouse Michael Guggenheim, Goldsmiths, University of London Casper Bruun Jensen, IT University of Copenhagen John Law, Open University Noortje Marres, Goldsmiths, University of London Ivan da Costa Marques, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro Annemarie Mol, University of Amsterdam David Pontille, CSI, Paris Volona Rabeharisoa, CSI, Paris Richard Rottenburg, University of Halle-Wittenberg Lucy Suchman, Lancaster University Anna Tsing, University of California, Santa Cruz Sarah Whatmore, Oxford University ## OA Publishing Advisory Board Edward Akerboom, Infostreams Alex Billington, Tetragon Mercedes Bunz, Leuphana University Tim Elfenbein, University of California, Irvine Gary Hall, Coventry University Eileen Joy, Punctum Books Chris Kelty, University of California Sarah Kember, Goldsmiths, University of London Ivor Williams, Amerang ## Partners CISP, Goldsmiths Centre for Mobilities Research, Lancaster University EASST Hybrid Publishing Lab Infostreams Institute for Social Futures, Lancaster University Open Humanities Press Tetragon Will Roscoe ScholarLed **This report was approved on 10 October 2024 by Endre Dányi, Joe Deville, Anna Dowrick, Natalie Gill, Julien McHardy, and Michaela Spencer.** **----- Start of picture text -----**
MATTERING PRESS Charity number: 1152056
CC16a
Receipts and payments accounts
For the period
6th April 2022 To 5th April 2023
from
**----- End of picture text -----**
## **Section A Receipts and payments** |**A1 Receipts**|**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**to the nearest £**|**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**to the nearest £**|**Restricted**
**funds**
**to the nearest £**|**Endowment**
**funds**
**to the nearest £**|**Total funds**
**to the nearest £**|**Last year**
**to the nearest £**| |---|---|---|---|---|---|---| |Receipts from institutions (publishing
fees)|||**-**
**-**
**-**|**-**|**-**|**4,065**
**-**
**2,491**| |Receipts from institutions (supporter
programme income)|**175**||||**175**|| |Individual donations|**244**|||**-**|**244**|| |Sales|**1,544**|||**-**|**1,544**|| |**_Sub total_**_(Gross income for_
_AR)_|**1,963**||**-**|**-**|**1,963**|**6,557**| |**A2 Asset and investment sales,**|||||||||| |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| |**(see table).**|||||||||| ||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||| ||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**| |**_Sub total_**|**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**||**-**| ||||||||||| |**_Total receipts_**|**1,963**||**-**||**-**||**1,963**||**6,557**| |**A3 Payments**||||||| |---|---|---|---|---|---|---| |Administration|**467**||**-**||**467**|**522**
**3,405**
**9,939**
**13,866**| |Printing and distribution|**1,603**||||**1,603**|| |Production|**3,762**||||**3,762**|| |Marketing|**726**|||**-**|**726**
**6,558**|| |**_Sub total_ **|**6,558**|||||| **----- Start of picture text -----**
A4 Asset and investment
purchases, (see table)
- - - -
- - - -
Sub total
- - - - -
Total payments 6,558 - - 6,558 13,866
Net of receipts/(payments)
- 4,595 - - - 4,595 - 7,309
A5 Transfers between funds
- - - - -
A6 Cash funds last year end
CCXX R1 accounts (SS) 39,312 - - 1 - 46,621 05/02/2024
**----- End of picture text -----**
|**_Cash funds this year end_**|**34,717**||**-**|
**-**|
**-**|
**39,312**| |---|---|---|---|---|---|---| CCXX R2 accounts (SS) 05/02/2024 2 ## **Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period** |**Categories**
**B1 Cash funds**
Signed by one or two trustees on
behalf of all the trustees
**B4 Assets retained for the**
**charity’s own use**
**B5 Liabilities**
**B3 Investment assets**
**B2 Other monetary assets**|Paypal Account 1
**Details**
**Details**
**Details**
Paypal Account 2
**Details**
Bank Current Account
**Details**
**_Total cash funds_**
Signature|**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**Restricted**
**funds**
**to nearest £**
**to nearest £**
**28,784**
**-**
**891**
**5,043**
**-**
**34,717**
**-**
**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**Restricted**
**funds**
**to nearest £**
**to nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Fund to which**
**asset belongs**
**Cost (optional)**
**-**
**-**
**Fund to which**
**asset belongs**
**Cost (optional)**
**-**
**-**
**Fund to which**
**liability relates**
**Amount due**
**(optional)**
**-**
**-**
Print Name
Joseph Deville|**Endowment**
**funds**
**to nearest £**| |---|---|---|---| ||||**-**| ||||| ||||**-**| ||||**-**| ||||**Endowment**
**funds**
**to nearest £**| ||||**-**| ||||**-**| ||||**Current value**
**(optional)**| ||||**-**| ||||**-**| ||||**Current value**
**(optional)**| ||||**-**| ||||**-**| ||||**When due**
**(optional)**| ||||| ||||| ||||Date of
approval| |||Joseph Deville|**5th February**
**2024**| CCXX R3 accounts (SS) 05/02/2024 3