New university press toolkit

A look at why this toolkit was created, how it was compiled and the governance behind it.

Visit the about the toolkit section.

There are lots of reasons to start a university press. This section looks at the most common drivers, such as support for the dissemination of research, engagement with the wider open access agenda, and helping academics meet funder requirements as these increasingly include open access publication. Another driver is the growing need to evolve the publishing ecology to make academic publishing sustainable for publishers, academics and institutions given the growing costs of resources and tightening institutional budgets.

Visit the why you should start a new university press? section.

Once you have made the decision to set up a new university press, you need to plan what you are going to do in detail. This section helps to outline the main objectives of the press with the creation of an overall mission statement, how this is achievable through specific aims, and, ultimately, how this supports the press' business strategy. 

Visit the planning section.

After you have decided on the goals of the press, and what it will publish, you need to think about its governance and the platforms and publishing services you will use to disseminate your publications. This will help you to establish the initial costs of the press and to establish a foundation to attract authors.

Visit the setting up the press section.

When taking the decision to set up a new university press, a key question to be considered is how to attract authors to publish with the new press? Given the extensive range of alternative publishing options, many of them long-established and well-known, why would an author decide to take the leap of faith and publish with a new press that is essentially an unknown entity?

This section tackles key questions about some of the common misconceptions about open access, areas for legitimate concern, what authors are looking for in a press and how a new press can quickly establish those essential qualities that will reassure and appeal to authors. 

Visit the attracting authors to publish section.

Many new university presses publish open access journals, using models ranging from offering hosting services to providing full publishing services. This section examines these different options and describes the governance structures required to ensure that journals maintain quality processes for publishing their outputs.

Visit the publishing journals section.

This section covers how to drive book submissions, the processes for evaluating them, the role of the editorial board, the peer review process and manuscript preparation. It also describes the role at a university press that most commonly coordinates this stage of the publishing process - the commissioning or acquisitions editor - and the alternative models that some presses adopt.

Visit the publishing books section.

Having strong production processes in place is essential to ensure that content is produced in a timely fashion, to high standards and within a reasonable budget.

This section outlines the key processes and workflows that will help to ensure that this process runs smoothly. This includes use of third-party material under a Creative Commons licence subject to the content owner's agreement. This section also describes the main formats and options for a press and its chosen routes for dissemination.

(The section mostly refers to books, but the values are transferable to journals, particularly the final sub-section.)

Visit the production section.

This section looks at dissemination and distribution. Basic metadata types and persistent identifiers (PIDs) are discussed, as are the issues facing open access presses in getting content into the traditional library supply chain. Advice is given on cultural change within the press' own institution. The section also describes the key indexing services which will ensure discoverability of press content. Finally, the main routes for selling print copies to retailers are outlined.

Visit the dissemination section.

This section briefly covers the importance of preserving the output of a new university press. There are a number of options for the press. However, many of these come at a substantial cost. This is an emerging area and a number of projects are investigating more cost effective, open source alternatives.

Visit the preservation section.

Marketing the books and journals the press publishes is important to ensure publications are seen by their intended audiences and communities. There are a number of ways to raise visibility and reach the target audience, many of which are inexpensive, but they will usually require some human resource, skills and knowledge to implement the marketing effectively.

A press' marketing strategy will guide the press and be informed by its planned activities, desired outcomes, stage of development and agreed measures of success. This section looks at a number of different marketing methods with an evaluation of their effectiveness and pros and cons.

Visit the marketing section.

Measuring impact will depend on the range of outputs being published, the funding of the press and the point at which the press finds itself. This section of the toolkit will touch on a number of methods, which can be used to measure the impact of the return on investment of the press.

Visit the impact section.