Justin Clark and Lucy Ashworth have been appointed as Production Manager and Publishing Assistant in two new posts for LSE Press.

Justin Clark has been working in academic publishing for over 18 years. He began his career at IOP Publishing in Bristol as a Production Editor, eventually being promoted to Senior Production Editor following a successful secondment as acting Production Team Manager at IOPP’s Washington DC office. After 7 years he left Bristol to spend a sabbatical year as a freelance production professional in Berlin, working for a range of companies including Copernicus Publications, before moving to London to further his publishing career.

He moved on to role within the commercial sector, spending a year in production at SAGE Publishing, before making a conscious move back into society publishing, taking up the role of Head of Publishing Operations for the Microbiology Society. There he spent 6 years working to modernise the entire operation – improving production, peer review and platform operations, and building an in-house team, to take the society forward.

Following another stint in the commercial sector, helping manage suppliers and processes for Emerald Publishing, he has now made another conscious move into non-profit open access university press publishing.

He says, “I’ve been watching the emergence of the ‘new’ university press sector with great interest and jumped at the chance to build a new production operation from the ground up at the LSE Press, unencumbered by the technical debt and legacy process baggage that often hinders an older publishing company. I’m hoping we can build a lean, modern operation that punches above its weight in terms of author experience.”

Clark also said, “I’m so pleased to be joining LSE Press as Production Manager at an important stage of its development. In order to scale up the operation and have more impact by publishing more high-quality open access content, the press needs a world-class production service in place and I’m excited to get started.”

Lucy Ashworth has joined LSE Press as Publishing Assistant. She began her career in academic publishing at Facet Publishing, the publishing arm of CILIP (the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals), where she progressed from Publishing, Awards and Events Officer to Marketing Executive. In that role, she supported the promotion of specialist library sector publications, as well as CILIP events and the running of The Carnegies children’s book awards.

Lucy holds a Master’s in Publishing from Kingston University and has previously completed internships with trade publishers such as Boldwood Books. She currently volunteers as a Communications Executive for The FLIP(Female Leadership in Publishing). She is now excited to deepen her experience in academic publishing and explore the world of open access.

Ashworth says, “Open access is essential for promoting equity, transparency and collaboration. I’m proud to be joining LSE Press and contributing to work that puts research in the hands of everyone.”

Sarah Worthington, Chair of LSE Press, commented: “Lucy and Justin’s backgrounds make them invaluable additions to our growing team. Their experience with leading institutional publishers in the open access publishing world mean they are ideally equipped to help us maintain the exceptional quality of our peer-reviewed books and journals while also delivering our ambitious 5-year strategic growth targets. I’m delighted to welcome them to LSE Press.”

Managing Director Niamh Tumelty added: “We are delighted that Lucy and Justin have joined the team at LSE Press during this exciting phase of development of our open-access publishing list of books and journals. We can’t wait to see what they both achieve.”

Clark and Ashworth join Philippa Grand, Head of Publishing, Alice Park, Managing Editor, and Elinor Potts, Communications Coordinator.