New university press toolkit | Jisc

Supporting and giving guidance to new university presses and library-led publishing ventures

Introduction

This toolkit will support and give guidance to new university presses and library-led publishing ventures as well as those with a hybrid model, who publish open access and non-open access material. It is free-to-access under a CC BY 4.0 licence, independent and interdisciplinary with articles written in English. 

The toolkit is for institutions with existing new univeristy presses (NUPs) as well as those planning to launch or investigate whether to establish a press. It is aimed at all staff who may have an interest in the area of new university presses and library-led publishing. Depending on the size of the operation, the press itself may only have one or two dedicated staff so other staff may be involved. Specific sections of the toolkit will be of use to:

• University press staff
• Information professionals (subject liaison librarians)
• Library directors (wishing to set up a press and inform senior university staff)
• Educational technologists
• Scholarly communications managers and research officers
• Academic staff (both as authors, editors and publishers)
• Senior university staff (heads of department, PVCs for research)

It is initially aimed at UK institutions, but will draw on international best practice and case studies and will appeal to a global audience (although reference to policy will centre on UK policy in the first instance).

How to use this toolkit

You can read this toolkit as a whole, or consult individual sections as appropriate. 

There are no right or wrong answers when it comes to publishing open access and this toolkit aims to provide guidance, including different processes depending on the size or mission of the press. Much of the content is written from the personal experience of the editorial advisory board as well as content from existing sources where licenses permit reuse. 

We welcome comments from all presses who have or are considering an open access option. If you have any feedback, please email Graham Stone, senior programme manager – open access monographs, Jisc (graham.stone@jisc.ac.uk).

The scope of the toolkit

For the purposes of this toolkit, "library publishing" is defined as the set of activities led by college and university libraries to support the creation, dissemination, and curation of scholarly, creative, and/or educational works (Lippincott, 20161). 

New university presses (NUPs) themselves differ in size and scope. For example, the following definitions of NUPs and library publishing are in scope:

• Consultation level - eg hosting of software, providing advice to researchers
• Full publishing service including support for authors and editors, using external suppliers or platforms to host content
• Full publishing service including support for authors and editors, including internal hosting of a publishing platform

Although topics on supporting researchers in relation to the publishing workflow and myth busting are included in this toolkit, direct support for individual researchers and libraries wishing to offer a supporting role are not in scope. Support for individual researchers who wish to understand more about open access for books is available at the OAPEN Open Access Books Toolkit2. Support for researchers wishing to select the appropriate open access journal is available at Sherpa Romeo as well via local library liaison staff.

This toolkit covers both journal and book formats in the first instance. It is hoped that other publication formats will be included over time.