UCL Press exceeds three million book downloads

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Since launching in May 2015, UCL Press has published over 140 academic books.

Downloads have taken place in 243 countries and territories, reaching readers in countries as far afield as Iraq and Benin. In January 2020 Arcticness was the first book downloaded in Antarctica.

Notable books and journals

The most popular title published by UCL Press continues to be How the World Changed Social Media by Professor Daniel Miller and a team of eight other esteemed global anthropologists. It has been downloaded over 400,000 times and has been translated into four languages.

Another notable book is the Textbook of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, by UCL and Royal Free London academics and practitioners, which has been downloaded 80,000 times in 194 territories, including India, China and Iraq.

UCL Press has 13 open access journal titles, and its new interdisciplinary journal Open Environment which showcases radical and critical thinking to address real world problems such as sustainability and climate change. 

Dr Paul Ayris, Pro-Vice-Provost for UCL Library Services, said:

“"Open Access is a revolution because it enables publishers to reach a new, global audience.

“It means that important medical textbooks and radical interdisciplinary approaches to tackling health crises such as covid-19 can be accessed by the people that need them regardless of where they live in the world. We believe that Open Access is the future of scholarly publishing.”

Find out more on the UCL Press blog.