FSOP Team

Our History

Florida State Open Publishing (FSOP), FSU Libraries’ scholarly publisher, began in 2011 as a collection of publishing services provided by the Office of Digital Research and Scholarship (DRS). Led by Micah Vandegrift, FSU Libraries’ first scholarly communications librarian, a small team provided early consultations, copyediting, and peer review support for FSU faculty. As interest in affordable learning materials grew, the libraries incorporated textbooks into their repository and published FSU’s first open textbook in 2019, Introduction to Financial Mathematics by Arash Fahim. The continued rise in requests for these resources showed that the university needed a permanent framework, leading FSU Libraries to formalize these services in 2021 as Florida State Open Publishing, backed by funding from the Dean of Libraries and a faculty advisory board.

Since its official founding, FSOP has helped launch major institutional projects, including its flagship Journal of Postsecondary Student Success (JPSS), developed alongside the FSU College of Education and the Provost’s Office. At the same time, FSOP provides publishing services to FSU students and student organizations to help showcase their work and provide them with publishing experience. The program collaborates with long-standing student publications like The Owl and Athanor to transition their work to open-source digital platforms, ensuring their research remains accessible, while also supporting student-driven cultural journals born from FSU’s international programs, such as ItaliaNoles and FLOR.

Expanding into academic books and Open Educational Resources (OER) has also become a core focus for FSOP. As a library publisher, FSOP prioritizes projects based on intellectual value and reader impact, rather than the commercial interests of the traditional academic publishing market. While maintaining strict scholarly rigor and a dedication to peer review, FSOP supports original monographs, edited collections, and specialized textbooks that might otherwise struggle to find a place in traditional publishing markets. Today, the catalog features a diverse range of scholarly titles, including Hemingway Studies in Japan and Holland’s RIASEC Hexagon, alongside a growing collection of open textbooks on topics ranging from middle school math education to building student confidence and creativity in college.

Publishing Partners and Memberships

FSU Libraries is a member or supporter of the following organizations. To learn more about FSU Libraries’ commitment to Open and other open access publishing opportunities, visit FSU Libraries’ Open Access Support.

• Library Publishing Coalition
• Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC)
• Open Education Network
• Open Library of the Humanities
• Directory of Open Access Journals

Meet the FSU Libraries team

Landis E. Grenville

Digital Publishing Librarian

Landis holds a PhD in English/Creative Writing from Florida State University and an MFA in poetry from the University of Virginia. Prior to joining FSOP in 2025, she served as poetry editor for a number of literary magazines and worked on textbooks and anthologies. Landis says, “It is a wonderful responsibility to steward a book from the writer’s hands to the reader’s. I deeply value the trust of authors who share their work with us and strive to honor that trust.”

Email: lgrenville@fsu.edu

Lisa A. Johnson

Open Publishing Assistant

Books have been a constant in Lisa’s life, making library publishing a natural destination after work in journalism, video production, higher education, cancer research, NASA manufacturing, and U.S. Department of Defense research. Lisa says, “I’ve always admired the art of visual and written communication. Since joining FSU Libraries as Open Publishing Assistant in 2022, I have felt personally connected to every publication FSOP releases.”

Email: laj22e@fsu.edu