Mission
The Scottish Universities Press aims to provide a clear and cost-effective route for researchers to make their work freely available to a global audience, meeting the requirements of funders and realising the ambition to extend the impact of research across society.
Background
Nineteen academic libraries are collaborating to develop an open access press and publishing platform that is managed by the participating libraries. The project is being coordinated through SCURL (Scottish Confederation of University and Research Libraries), the membership body that supports collaborative initiatives across Scotland’s academic and research libraries.
The process began with the identification of a shared challenge. In this case it was the need for a clear and cost-effective route to open access publishing that would satisfy funder requirements, REF requirements and align to the principles of Plans S. A key driver was the announcement from UKRI that from 1 January 2024 monographs, book chapters and edited collections must be made open access within 12 months of publication. Beyond meeting this immediate objective there is an appetite to explore alternative approaches to academic publishing, that are of the academy and have the needs of the academy at the core.
In 2019 SCURL commissioned research to test the proof of concept for a collaborative universities press. The resulting Proof of Concept for a Scottish University Press Report was very favourable towards the prospect and discussions began on taking forward the findings. A Management Board was formed from representatives at participating institutions and met for the first time in 2021. After an open call for applications, the SUP Editorial Board was appointed in July 2022 .
SUP launched its first call for monograph proposals in November 2022 and will publish the first books from October 2024.
We publish work by researchers from all member institutions.
We cover all subject areas that receive submissions.
We publish monographs and edited collections, but the wider ambition is to extend this to other types of content, including journals and textbooks.
We publish fully open access books on the SUP platform using Creative Commons licences. Authors will retain the copyright to their work.
All proposals and manuscripts go through a rigorous peer review process, managed by an Editorial Board of academics from across participating institutions.
We provide the option to buy print copies.
We provide a full publishing service, including copy-editing, design and typesetting, marketing and global dissemination.
The running costs of the press are met by member institutions. This subsidised model allows SUP to deliver low production charges (see the Costs section).
The press operates on a not-for-profit basis and any surpluses will be reinvested in the press for the benefit of all partners.